


Us, together.

by coolangelsthesis



Series: parent!NoiAo [1]
Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, One Shot Collection, parent!noiao
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-29
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-03-26 06:48:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 24,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3841123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coolangelsthesis/pseuds/coolangelsthesis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A family. People connected by one thing and one thing alone: love.<br/>Unbreakable love. Love that withstands anger and pain, love that forgives, love that blossoms in bouts of laughter, love that lingers in quiet moments. </p><p>When they were children, Noiz and Aoba's families were broken, both of them abandoned.<br/>But now they had their own children.<br/>Now they had their own family. </p><p>[A collection of parent!NoiAo one-shots/ficlets crossposted from tumblr]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sweet as Sugar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noiz and their two children celebrate Aoba's birthday with breakfast in bed.

“Okay, I think he’s awake. Or he should be.”

With a soft sigh, Noiz glanced down at his two children.  
The duo stared up at him with eyes glistening, expectantly waiting. Their daughter already had her tiny hand tight around the bedroom’s doorknob, ready for her father’s signal.  
He nodded once, then his daughter pulled on the knob. Noiz gripped tighter onto the breakfast tray in his hands, then shouldered the door open.

“Good morning, Aoba,” he called out into the bedroom.  
“Good morning, Papa!” the two children cheered in unison. “Happy birthday!”

They rushed past Noiz to get into bed before him. He chuckled at them and shook his head.

Unfortunately, Noiz’s prediction was far from correct. The sheets were still wrapped tight around Aoba, with the most of them curled around his face to block the intruding light from bothering his sleep. The bed was a mass of piled blankets, with the only indication someone was underneath the clump being a couple of blue strands of hair spilling out onto his pillow.

Their son—Lukas—lunged into bed, disrupting the bed of sheets. He bounced up and down and tugged the covers away from Aoba’s face to wake him up.  
“Wake up!” Lukas said, directly in Aoba’s ear. He pulled the sheets free and threw most of them off the side of the bed.

The bright morning light seared into Aoba’s eyes and he groaned in annoyance.

“ _No_ ,” Aoba whined, trying to what bedsheets he could away from his son. “Just… five more minutes.”  
“Nope! No five more minutes!” his son exclaimed, shoving Aoba’s shoulder to force him awake. “It’s your birthday, no sleeping in on birthdays!”  
“ _Buuut_ …”

Aoba sighed defeat and gave up trying to fish the blankets away from his son. It was no use trying to fight with a rambunctious, bull-headed child like him. He sat up and rubbed the sleep out his eyes.

Seeing that the fight was won, Lukas curled up at his side and hugged him tight. Golden eyes stares up at him, glimmering with joy.  
“Happy birthday, Papa! We’re gonna give you the best birthday ever.”

Aoba yawned, then wrapped his arms around Lukas. Immediately he felt another, smaller body curl up on his other side. The younger of the two kids, Aiko, climbed up and forced her way underneath one of Aoba’s arms. He noticed then that her long, blond hair was tied up in a braid—something Noiz had become skilled at doing in the mornings.

“Happy birthday, Papa.” She him on the cheek, then settled back into his arms. “Vati made breakfast. You should it eat it before we go to school.”  
“H-Huh? Vati… cooked?” Aoba asked, unable to hide his own surprise. He had barely noticed Noiz in his half-awake state—let alone the tray in his hands.

Noiz never made breakfast. The only time he voluntarily stayed in the kitchen to cook was when Aoba was in there, and they were cooking together. Whenever Aoba had more important things to finish rather than cook dinner, Noiz miraculously happened to have an abundance of work to finish.  
After years living together, Aoba still couldn’t tell whether it was because he didn’t like to cook, or didn’t know how to cook anything other than pasta. Hearing that Noiz went out of his way to prepare a meal was a surprise in of itself.

Aoba wiped away the exhaustion in his eyes, and narrowed at the food in his hands, then upwards to his husband’s face.

“Y-You cooked?” he asked, nodding to the trails of steam coming off from the food.  
“Yeah,” Noiz replied.  
“What did you make?”  
“Crepes.”  
“How did you—”  
Noiz cut him off with a trademark sigh. But the smile on his face never weaned. “I looked up a recipe and followed it. Simple enough. Besides, Aiko’s right. Don’t you want to eat it before it gets cold?”  
“…Sure. Thank you.”

Noiz stepped over to the bed and carefully climbed in with the rest of his family.  
Aoba sat up and folded his legs underneath him. Their young daughter climbed into his lap and their son clung onto his arm, eagerly watching him. Noiz set the tray down on the bed—a tall, steaming cup of coffee and a large plate of crepes, filled to the brim with strawberries and whipped cream.  
It looked delicious. Aoba could hardly believe Noiz could make something like this.

“Breakfast in bed… huh,” Aoba muttered offhandedly.  
“What?” Noiz sat in front of Aoba on the opposite side of the tray. “Is there something wrong?”  
“Ah, it’s nothing. Isn’t that just… a little messy?”  
“Not really. And besides…”

Noiz leaned in over the tray, closer to Aoba’s ear. He crooned his low, sensual voice, cautious enough to ensure their children couldn’t hear him.  
“We’ve made bigger messes here before, haven’t—”

Aoba shoved him away and glared.  
“O-okay, that’s enough. T-There’s children here, idiot.”  
Noiz got the message clear enough with the frustrated blush that formed over Aoba’s cheeks. Their children were staring up at them, oblivious, desensitized to their playful displays of affection.

Noiz reached for a fork sectioned off a piece of the crepe. He held it up to Aoba’s mouth.

“Eat,” he said.  
Aoba stared down at the whipped cream and bits of strawberry with a look of confusion. “ _Huh_?”  
“Eat.”

Noiz nudged the bite of food closer, intentionally swiping a dab of whipped cream onto Aoba’s cheek. Their two children giggled in unison and Aoba glowered.  
“I… I can feed myself, you know. I’m not a baby.”  
“I know that. But it’s your birthday. So just for today, let me feed you breakfast.”

But Aoba remained reluctant.  
“You… you’re still such a weird kid,” he muttered to himself. “You— _Wait_.”

As an afterthought, Aoba glanced down at his two children. “Have you two ate?”  
Aiko nodded. “Vati made extras, and we ate before we woke you up.”  
“They’re tasty!” Lukas butted in. “But Papa didn’t let me put any extra whipped cream on mine.”  
Aoba sighed with relief, then messed up Lukas’ short blue hair.  
“ _Good_. You’re dangerous when you have too much sugar.”

Lukas pouted comically, and Aiko laughed at her older brother. Aoba opened his mouth, giving in to Noiz’s desires. He popped the bite of food into his mouth then drew the fork away.  
Noiz stared at him expectantly as he chewed—it _was_ delicious. Everything was sweet, but it wasn’t too overbearing. The only complaint was that the crepe itself was slightly overcooked, but the thought put behind the gesture compensated. He swallowed and grinned.

“It’s delicious,” he exclaimed, opening his mouth for another bite.  
“You think so?” Noiz said again. “Thank goodness.”

But instead of leaning in with another bite of food, Noiz leaned in with his body, kissing Aoba on his open mouth.  
He broke apart before Aoba could complain, and licked a trace of whipped cream off the corner of his husband’s mouth.

Aoba’s face grew redder and Noiz laughed. Then their children joined in and Aoba’s shame intensified.  
“You’re as red as the strawberries, Aoba,” Noiz commented while cutting another forkful.  
Aoba sighed. “B-Be quiet…”

Noiz brought another bite of food to Aoba’s mouth to distract him. And then another.

*

After Aoba finished his breakfast, he slowly drank the rest of his coffee. He listened to his two children excitedly tell him about what else they had planned in store for him—and smiled a bit when either of them caught themselves before spoiling a big surprise.  
After a while they excused themselves to go get ready for school, leaving Noiz and Aoba alone.

Noiz gathered up the dirty dishes from breakfast and set them down on his bedside table. He then returned back into bed, wrapping his arms tight around Aoba.

“Now you’re _really_ old, huh,” he teased, kissing the back of his husband’s ear.  
“Am not,” Aoba whined. “If I’m getting old, so are you.”  
“I don’t mind. As long as we grow old together, I don’t care.”

Noiz’s hand searched around on the sheets for Aoba’s hand, found it, and squeezed it tight. He brought the hand—his left hand—upwards, running his thumb over the metal band on his finger. In the center of the silver was a single, shining emerald. Noiz had the same, but with a gem of aquamarine.

He brought Aoba’s hand to his mouth and kissed the top of the ring.  
Touched, Aoba held onto Noiz’s hand and pulled it close to his mouth. The disfigured fingers still brought a wash of guilt over him when he ran his fingers over the deformed bones. He wished he could have healed his injuries, years long healed by the time he met Noiz.

But to think… those years were far behind him, and Noiz never had to suffer in a dark room alone. That was enough. There was no point in changing the past, when the present and future had more than enough in store.  
He lovingly kissed the top of his ring, putting all these feelings of admiration, warmth, and love into the gesture.

They held each other like that, in quiet and tender love, for minutes that seemed to span on like hours.  
Then out of the silence, a sharp crash from the living room interrupted their solace, accompanied by the sound of their son’s laughter.  
“Don’t worry about that!” Lukas called out. There was a definitive sound of Ren’s exhaustive sigh coming from the same direction.

Aoba sucked in a breath between his front teeth. “That sounded like something we _definitely_ should worry about.”

Noiz shook his head and with a low chuckle. Reluctantly, he pulled out of their embrace.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll go see what Lukas did.”  
“And ground him.”  
“Heh… then I’ll to get the kids to school. I’ll be back soon.”  
“But what about work?” Aoba asked.  
“I don’t work today. It’s been a while since we’ve had time alone.”  
“Aah, you’re right. It would be nice to have some time alone.”

Aoba rose out of bed and grabbed the bedsheets, smoothing them down over the surface of the bed in a trivial attempt to make it.

“Some time to do things without the kids around, hm?” Noiz asked, helping him smooth down the sheets. “Whatever you want to do, consider it done.”  
“Well then, I’ll think of something good. I can’t wait,” Aoba said with a grin.  
“I can’t either.” Noiz let out a long sigh. “Well, I’m off.”  
“Be safe.”

Noiz hurried out into the hallway, then stopped. He clicked his tongue and turned on his heel back into the bedroom.  
“Ah, before I leave… I didn’t get the chance to say this before.”

He went to where Aoba was standing—in front of the bathroom door, readying to take a shower—and cupped a hand to his cheek. He dipped in and kissed him on the lips, lingering for a few moments before breaking apart.  
He gave Aoba the gentlest smile he could ever offer—the type that spanned around his entire face. The type that few had ever seen before he met him, now Aoba was fortunate enough to see it on a daily occurrence.

“ _Happy birthday._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for Aoba's birthday! Unfortunately it ended up pretty short, I had something longer in mind... well, there's always Noiz's birthday around the corner...


	2. Hand to Hand, Heart to Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt fill: "Hold my hand."
> 
> The family spends an afternoon in the park, and in each other's company.

“So… you really left work early to go to the park with us today?”   
“Yes.”   
“B-But… didn’t you have a big meeting today? Leaving Theo all alone to run it…”   
“I only left a couple hours early. And it was his idea, for the most part. I had already set up most of the presentation, he’s capable of holding his own. Besides—”

He turned his head away, facing towards the playground their children—along with several other young kids—were clamoring around. Their two children were playing on the swing-set, competing to see who could swing the highest. And their daughter was winning by a landslide, mocking her older brother every time she passed him.   
The longer he watched, the more Noiz’s gaze softened. Eventually his mouth upturned in a gentle smile and he leaned his weight onto his husband’s shoulder.

“—this is much nicer than being stuck in a meeting.”   
Aoba followed his eye and stared, transfixed, as their children kicked up dirt, laughed amongst themselves, and soared even higher into the air with every swing.   
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

He ruffled up Noiz’s hair affectionately, making the blond hairs stand upwards on their own.   
“And you have been working pretty hard recently,” he added. “You deserve a break.”   
“Spending time here with you and the kids here is the best way to unwind.”

When Aoba arrived home from his part-time job, with his two children in tow from picking them up from school, Noiz was already there, waiting. Without a word to explain himself, he proposed spending the rest of the afternoon at the park—which their children agreed to unanimously.

Aoba yawned and leaned against the back of the park bench they were sitting on.   
“I had a long day,” he said, propping most of his weight onto Noiz, so they were learning against one another. “First day back working… I don’t really like it much. I miss when I could just take care of the kids… but now they’re too old.”   
“You could always work for me again, if you end up not liking your new job. There’s no problem with that.”   
“I know, but I don’t want to do that anymore. I’ve been in Germany for over 10 years now, shouldn’t I have… I don’t know… a better career? I just don’t want to be _your_ husband, working at _your_ job. I want to do something, too… I just don’t know what, yet.”   
“Well, whatever you decide on doing, I know you’ll be great at it.”

“You… you are so embarrassing,” Aoba mumbled. He nudged Noiz in the side to brush him away.   
“I’m just saying the truth. I’m not trying to embarrass you,” Noiz said.

Aoba knew he was lying. He could hear the clear indication of flirtation in Noiz’s tone. Instead of leaning further away, Noiz did just the opposite—he pinned his weight against Aoba to hold him in place against the bench.   
His face inched closer, wearing the same usual smirk he wore when toying with his husband.

Aoba, too flustered to do try to push him away, muttered the first thing that came to his mind:   
“Y-Your face is getting r-really close…”   
“Really?”

Noiz pressed his lips to Aoba’s in a soft kiss. He deepened the kiss further, opening Aoba’s lips open with his tongue. He was helpless to follow into his rhythm, moaning weakly into Noiz’s mouth as he dragged his tongue in his mouth.

And just as quickly as he had kissed him, Noiz broke away. He ran his tongue over his glistening lips, then swiped away the excess saliva with the back of his hand.

“You’ve been chewing bubblegum, haven’t you?”   
“Ah, yeah, I have… but why does that matter…”   
At the thought Aoba felt around his mouth with his tongue. He frowned, puzzled— the gum wasn’t there.  
Out of the corner of his eye, he jaw Noiz’s jaw moving up and down in a chewing motion.

Of course.

Aoba guffawed and flushed red with embarrassment. “N-Noiz, w-what did you do that for? That’s _gross_!”   
“It tasted good,” Noiz replied, tone casual, indifferent. “I wanted to taste it more, but I know you wouldn’t want me to kiss you for a long time when we’re in front of a playground.”   
“Y-You… whatever.”   
Aoba sighed in defeat. His husband was still utterly shameless, and still acted like he didn’t have a filter in the most public of settings. It couldn’t be helped.

“That was mine, though,” he muttered under his breath.   
“You want it back?” Noiz was completely unfazed, staring at Aoba with the same cool, collected disposition he usually held. “I can give it back if you want.”   
“N-No, it’s fine. Have it, I don’t care,” Aoba muttered.   
His face was already hot and could feel the redness deepening. He averted his eyes to not see the triumphant look in Noiz’s eyes as he proudly chewed on the piece of gum, like the act was a prized trophy. Noiz blew a bubble to taunt him even further.

His embarrassment was cut off by hands tugging at his shoulder. During their brief discourse of PDA, their children had left the swing set over towards them.

His son tugged on his shoulder. He grinned ecstatically from ear to ear, still panting while trying to regain his breath. His daughter sat on the bench beside Noiz, her legs dangling off the side to and fro.

“Papa, Vati, come play with us on the swings!” Lukas said. “Aiko and I are having a contest to see who can swing the highest! You should help us!”   
“Lukas wants to swing all the way around,” their daughter chimed in. She pursed her lips in a pondering scowl, much like her father did. “He keeps trying but he can’t get any higher.”

“Ah… i-isn’t that kind of dangerous?” Aoba asked, with slight hesitation in his voice. “You could get really hurt…”  
“I’m fine, I’m fine. Don’t worry!” Lukas said. “I’ve seen big kids do it all the time. And with you there, I know you’ll be super extra careful. _Come on_ , Vati.”

He nudged Noiz’s shoulder to get him off the park bench. Noiz chuckled and finally gave in.   
“Lukas is right, Aoba,” he said while standing up. “It’ll be fun, won’t it? As long as they’re careful.”

With three against one, Aoba figured it couldn’t be helped. He didn’t want to be the boring parent.   
“Okay, fine. But I’m not pushing them that high. Neither are you, mister.”  
Scowling, he rose to his feet and jabbed a finger at Noiz.

“I’m not paying any hospital bills because I told you better. Did you hear that, you two? No swinging all the way around.”

“But–!” Lukas whined, then stopped with a sigh. “Fine. But you’ll still push us, won’t you?”   
“Of course,” Noiz said.   
“Good! Now, Vati… hold my hand.” Lukas grabbed for his father’s big thumb tight in his smaller hand. Noiz wrapped his son’s hand in his and held it tight, letting himself be dragged around at the will of his son.

Wordlessly Aiko did the same—her hands were even tinier than her brother’s, but she latched onto Aoba’s hand and pulled him towards the swing set…

… Which, unfortunately for them, had been filled by other children the moment Lukas and Aiko left.

Always a stubborn optimist, Aoba puffed up his chest and mustered a smile.   
“Don’t worry! We’ll just go make our own fun, then. Come on!”

He hoisted Aiko up into his arms and carried her away from the playground, not certain where he was going but making his mind in the process.   
Laughing, Noiz followed after with Lukas and tow.

*

Time passed idly, spent enjoying the cool spring air among the fresh grass and newly budding flowers. But eventually their children grew bored of the park and whined to go home.

As they wandered through cobblestone streets, taking the longest route home that they knew possible, they wandered through old fashioned bakeries, old shops with ornate wooden trinkets on display clashing against the sleek and new—anything any everything that could fetch a young child’s interest.   
Even if they passed the same stores over and over, Lukas and Aiko still stopped to admire the shop’s beauty. It had become habitual to take short walks after dinner when the weather was nice.

They walked home quietly, taking occasional breaks to admire store fronts—children walking in front of parents, protectively walking shoulder to shoulder to keep a watchful on their kids while they walked.

“It was nice today,” Noiz said, glancing into the window of a quaint toy shop their children were wandering about in. They begged to let them wander around— _five minutes, tops,_ Aoba said— before heading home for dinner.   
“Yeah, it was,” Aoba said. “I’m glad you were able to go to the park with us, they really liked you being there.”   
“Even if we couldn’t swing them all the way around?”

Aoba snorted.   
“Don’t worry, that’s not happening. Not now, or the next time, or ever.”   
“So pushy, Aoba.” Noiz laughed softly.   
“Well _someone_ has to be responsible for taking care of three children.”

Aoba grinned triumphantly, basking in final getting the upper hand on his husband— which he simply brushed off by rolling his eyes.   
“Not funny,” he muttered. “And stop smiling like that.”   
“ _Make me._ ”   
“Make you… Heh, once we’re home, I will. A lot.”   
Aoba stammered and turned his head away. “Y-you’re so _embarrassing_ …”

Now Noiz wore the winning grin. He opened his mouth to speak, but the soft jingling of bells cut him off. Their children walked out of the toy store carrying small toys in hand. The sound of the owner wishing them off in German carried out before the door closed.

Lukas was holding a small plush tiger underneath his arm, Aiko with a small plush parakeet.   
Aoba smiled softly and knelt downwards, pointing to the small toys.   
“These are cute,” he said, ruffling up Lukas’ tiger’s faux mane. It felt soft and comforting to the touch—Lukas loved toys like that. “But I didn’t give you any… you didn’t steal them, did you?”

His children made a noise of aghast, catching his bait hook, line, and sinker.   
“Of course not!” Aiko exclaimed. “Vati gave us enough money for a toy each—oh… I wasn’t supposed to tell you that…” 

Her face paled. She shot an apologetic look towards her father.   
But Aoba just laughed and ruffled up her long blond hair.  
“Hehe, it’s fine! I’m not mad. Besides, they are really cute. I don’t see the harm in it at all.”

He leaned back and sighed. “So, are you ready to go home now?”   
“Mmhm!” their children said in unison, then took off towards the direction of their apartment.

“Oi! Wait, you two!” Noiz called after them. When they stopped a couple feet away, he sighed with relief. Their children giggled mischievously and called back, telling them to hurry up.

“Those two kids,” Aoba complained while rising to his feet. “I thought raising children got easier as they got older. I think I’m more tired than when they were babies…”   
“Well, there are newer challenges to face the older you get, huh? … By the way.”

Noiz held his hand out towards Aoba, his palm turned upwards. A smile skirted on the corners of his lips.   
“Hold my hand,” he insisted.   
“W-Why?”   
“Because I want to walk with you while holding your hand. That’s all.”

How Noiz could go from flirting to gentle in a matter of seconds still floored Aoba. Regardless, Noiz’s words alone were enough to convince him. He swallowed down his embarrassment and weaved his fingers between Noiz’s and gripped tight.

There was unspoken strength in hands clasped together—they bared a bond between two people, wordlessly depending onto the other to draw from their strength. A constant reassurance of not being alone.  
The gentle warmth of linked fingers carried a thousand _I love you’s_ within them.

Noiz and Aoba walked home with their children, sharing these quiet endearments between themselves as the sound of their children’s laughter filled the night air.


	3. This Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt fill: "... They grow up so fast."
> 
> Hectic morning schedules made more hectic by seeing children off to school. Especially when their daughter was going to school for the first time.

“Okay, do you have everything?”  
This was around the seventh time that Aoba had asked that this morning. From the moment he woke, he ran around, groggily bemoaning about having to dip back into such an early and bustling morning schedule, aiding his son and husband in getting them ready for the day.

But this day was different.  
They had experienced the first day of school routine three times now. It was a day that Noiz requested coming in a couple of hours late— it was a day that they drove their son from their apartment complex to the most prestigious private school in Munich— it was a day that had Aoba crying in the passenger seat of their car as they watched their son walk up the steps to school.

But now, this day was different.  
Now their daughter was leaving off for school, too.

“Yes, they have everything,” Noiz replied, setting down two backpacks on the kitchen counter before stealing himself away, his sleeping T-shirt already halfway off his torso as he slunk back to the bedroom to work on getting himself ready.   
“Well that’s good— _ah_!”  
Aoba nearly jumped as a piece of toast popped out of the metal toaster. He was fidgety and nervous and continually kept almost stumbling over himself while trying to prepare his children’s lunches. He wanted them to have nice bento lunches on special days like this, a tradition he had been keeping with Noiz for years. But it was difficult making two separate meals while trying to make breakfast at the same time.

He was running around frantically, checking on eggs cooking in their pan, stirring vegetables ready to be taken out boiling in rolling water— somehow between checking over everything, he managed to spread peanut butter over the two pieces of toast for his children.

Meanwhile, two young faces sitting with elbows resting on the counter of the island in the kitchen watched as their father trying to do the work of two people at once. The younger of the two kept rocking her legs back and forth, hitting her feet against the counter with a soft knocking sound.

“Aiko, stop doing that. You know that Papa doesn’t like when you do that,” her older brother said.   
“Yeah but—” Aiko began, then sighed. He was right. She shifted in her chair, tucking her legs underneath her to stop herself from swinging her legs.   
“Nervous?” Her older brother tried to console her with a reassuring smile. “First day of school is a big, big day. You should be excited! It’ll stop being so scary once you’re there.”   
“You don’t know that!” the young girl retorted, taking a large bite of toast and swiveling around in her chair. “You don’t know, I could be going to school with monsters for all you know.”

“You won’t being going to school with any _monsters_ ,” Aoba butted in. Finally having the finishing touches of his kids’ lunched finished, Aoba set the two bento boxes in front of their plates, along with a breakfast of toast and eggs. With a relieved sigh he pushed the hair falling into his eyes back into place.   
“If you went to school with monsters, we’d get you into a different school,” he added.   
“You don’t know what the kids will be like! I could be going to school with monsters that would eat me, Papa!”   
“Well, if there _are_ monsters in your class, just tell Vati and we’ll get it all sorted out. Now eat, you two. We’re running late.”

As if by clockwork, Noiz walked out of the bedroom right afterwards—he was still fussing on fixing his tie, straightening and re-straightening his suit. His hair was still sticking out in every what way, the telltale sign of bedhead.   
Noiz yawned and slunk into the kitchen, heading directly for the coffee pot.

“And you’re especially late, Noiz,” Aoba jabbed at his husband.   
“I’m not late, you’re early,” Noiz retorted after a long sip of coffee. He stepped behind Aoba and slipped a hand into his back pocket, grabbing the flesh of his butt, making a point to dig his nails in hard.   
Aoba muffled a loud yell as he jumped away, preluded by kicking his husband in the shin.

“Y-You—!” he started, swatting away Noiz’s hands while rubbing out the pain. “And I am not early! We have to leave soon and you still haven’t done your hair!”   
Noiz sighed and folded his arms over his chest; Aoba pouted and mimed his stance.   
“I’m not late, Aoba. I haven’t woken up late in years.”   
“Then why are we just about ready to leave and you _just_ got dressed, hm? I’ll have to take them to school without you.”   
Again, Noiz sighed.   
“ _Aooba_ ,” he said, drawling out extra emphasis on the syllables. “Stop panicking for just a minute and look at the time.”

Begrudgingly doing as he was asked, Aoba turned on his Coil and gasped with surprise. It was only 7:45. They still had more than a half an hour before it was time to take their children to school. All this time, he had thought he had been running horribly late—just to find his immature excuse of a husband was taking his sweet time as he got himself in a panic for no reason.

“What—! Why didn’t you tell me?!”   
Noiz shrugged. “I was going to, but I found you running around trying to get everything done really cute. Besides…”

Noiz stepped around the kitchen island, grabbing an untouched piece of toast from his daughter’s plate. He ran his fingers through her long, blond hair while taking a large bite of toast. The little girl giggled and pulled her hair back. All Aoba had managed to do while running around frantically was pulling it up in a high ponytail.

“Now I can braid Aiko’s hair for her like I promised I would.”  
He leaned forward, catching his daughter’s eye. “Still want that?”  
“Ah, _yes_ , Vati!” the girl beamed. All of her nerves seemed to wash away at once, overcome with excitement instead. “You do the best braids!”

“That’s because Vati taught me,” he said, scooping his daughter into his arms.  
He carried her off into the bathroom, sharing one of the several stories about Aoba that he retold countless of times.

*

Even if they were running early, in the end the family of four scrambled out of the loft with just a couple minutes to spare. Everything was a flurry of AllMates, lunches, backpacks, and bodies trying to hurry out of the front door.

It was nothing less than a miracle that Noiz didn’t hit any red lights on the way to school.

They now stood in the front of the large elementary school. Its façade was all red brick and gilded garnishes, reveling in its own prestige. Other parents and young children were crowded around in the front lawn of the school, saying their final goodbye’s to their children before they left to begin another school year.  
Lukas and Aiko stood side by side, clutching onto their bento boxes. Lukas caught a glance of one of his closest friends waving him over. Noiz noticed and sent him off, the eager boy started off, waving goodbye to his parents.

Aoba watched on with a content sigh, before kneeling down to his daughter’s level.

“Aiko, do you need us to walk you to classes?”   
The little girl shook her head. She looked frightened, nervous.   
“No, I can do it. I wanna go by myself,” she insisted.   
“But…”

A sound of footsteps approached, then their son reemerged at his sister’s side. He grabbed Aiko’s hand and flashed a reassuring grin down at her, then up to his parents.   
“Don’t worry, I got her, I’ll show her around,” he said. “That’s alright, isn’t it, Aiko?”   
She nodded, holding onto the strap of her backpack a little tighter while holding her brother’s hand closer. “Yeah… I want big brother to help me, Papa.”

Aoba tried to open his mouth to argue, but remained silent. It was important for Aiko to gain some sort of independence. It was good for her. And he knew Lukas would ensure that she was safe and sound.   
He let his arguments drop and he smiled softly, nodding.  
“Okay, be sure to have fun! I know you’ll do well!”

“Bye Vati, bye Papa!” the children said in unison, waving. “Love you!”

Hand in hand, Lukas and Aiko walked up the white steps to the front of the elementary school. They intermingled with their peers (besides the bright blue that separated Lukas from the rest of the children), disappearing into the school’s front.

Noiz and Aoba watched on in quiet reverence along with other parents, until they couldn’t see their children in the crowd.

After a while, Noiz heard a something like a choked breath coming from his side. Concerned, he glanced out of the corner of his eye—Aoba eyes were red, tears dampening the puffy skin around them. He sniffed and wiped his face quickly, swallowing down the wave of shame.

Noiz laughed. He reached over and wiped Aoba’s cheeks clean.   
“You’re already crying. You usually manage to hold it in until the car. Come here.”

Noiz wrapped an arm around Aoba’s shoulder and pulled him in for a hug. He didn’t mind that there were other couples around them—a couple of them in the same state as them, trying to console the most emotional of them. Aoba reciprocated it without hesitation, burying his face into the side of Noiz’s neck.

“… They just grow up so fast,” he mumbled.   
Noiz took a while to respond, voice thick. “I know.”   
“I remember when they were both so little. We could hold them in our hands.”   
“I… I know. Now they’re so big. All grown up.”

Aoba gave one final squeeze before pulling out of their hug, wiping clean his flushed cheeks once more, smiling sheepishly. His vision was hazy from the after-effects of tears, but from what he could see…

Noiz’s cheeks were flushed, his eyes were puffy. His eyes were glistening with tears.   
He had was beginning to cry, too.

“You!” he said, batting his husband on the arm. “You can’t make fun of me when you’re crying, too. You big _baby_.”   
“I can’t help it,” Noiz said, wiping his face clean with a sniffle. “They’re all grown up. And you’re crying, too, it’s hard not to.”

Aoba nodded, staring wistfully into the empty front of the school.   
“I just miss spending all my time with them, you know. Lukas already has his own friends, he’s already growing up. And now Aiko will too and… I just don’t want them to forget about us.”   
“ _Aoba_.” Noiz said, with the sort of humor in his voice when he knew his husband was being over-the-top. “Going off to school won’t change any of that. You know that, don’t you? You’re just thinking too much.”   
“Yeah… you’re probably right. I just wish I could be there for them always.”   
“You always will be. They won’t go drastically pushing us out of our lives any time soon. Not for another couple years, at least.”

Aoba mustered a weak laugh at that; Noiz sighed in relief. He wrapped an arm around Aoba’s shoulders and pulled him in closer, kissing the top of his head. They remained still for a moment, entranced within themselves, paying no attention to other parents around them.   
Aoba broke the silence with a delicate hum. He peered up, looking into Noiz’s face.

“Hey— do you think you have to go into work today?”   
Noiz mulled over his thoughts, clicking his tongue against the back of his teeth. “I don’t see why I couldn’t. Theo will understand. He wanted me to take off today before.”   
“That’s good, then. I want to go on a date.”

Noiz blinked in surprise. “ _A date_?”   
“A… y-yeah.” Aoba laughed, rubbing the nape of his neck to ease his embarrassment. “It’s been a while since we’ve been able to go do things alone. I want to do that again.”  
“Yeah.” Noiz nodded. “A date is a good idea. Remember that café we used to go to a lot before work? Let’s go there today.”   
“I’d love to.”

They walked back to their car, hands held in one another’s grip, throwing occasional glances backwards towards the school’s facade. Parents just like them had begun to file out; besides a few other couples, they were the only ones still sticking around.   
A bell rang from the high tower, signaling the beginning of classes.  
Noiz squeezed Aoba’s hand and lifted it up to his lips, pressing a delicate kiss to the gold band around his finger.

This day was different, indeed; it was another stepping stone in their life. Both of their children had more than just them now. They were on their ways into becoming the loving and caring children they had wanted them to become.

They had done well.


	4. Welcome Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt fill: "Mind if I move a bit closer?"
> 
> The first night of being a parent--one of the biggest change in anyone's life. Especially Noiz's and Aoba's.

It was the moment that Noiz and Aoba had 9 months to prepare themselves for. But even if they prepared themselves for months, as soon as they received word that their surrogate mother was going into labor, the two of them went into a panic, two excited messes of nerves scrambling over one another.

In the waiting room, Aoba couldn’t stop himself from bouncing in his seat, nervously pacing to and fro, and staring at Noiz with a look of sheer terror that read— _I can’t believe we’re going to be parents._  
Noiz felt all this too, and was so anxious and excited that he felt he could burst, but he had to keep his husband grounded. Reassuring Aoba that everything was going to be alright was the only thing keeping _him_ sane.

All that they needed was patience. Soon enough they would greet their son into the world.

And finally, the wailing cry as their son took in his first breath was reassurance that all the waiting had finally paid off. From that moment forward, their lives were changed completely.

The first hours of their son’s life was filled with nonstop phone calls, elated cooing’s over their son, and several nurses and technicalities. It wasn’t until the late evening that Noiz and Aoba could properly say hello to their son. Even then, Aoba kept receiving calls from home sending their best regards. Aoba was exhausted, and left his on silent.  
But Noiz’s Coil rang just as Aoba had finally gotten the handle of putting their son to sleep. Their son started to cry from being startled, but Aoba managed to calm him down before his wailing escalated. Noiz apologized and left to answer the call. Aoba figured it must have been important, probably Theo… or his parents.

Noiz’s parents weren’t particularly keen on them deciding to raise a child together, but Noiz’s parents would open up, Aoba was certain of it. They just required time to adjust. In time, they welcomed Aoba into their family, and soon they would welcome their grandson just the same.

The soft sound of Noiz’s voice whispering into his Coil drifted into the silent hospital room—they were given their own room, so they could spend the night with their son before taking him home in the morning.

Aoba sighed in exhaustion and leaned his head back against the pillows.   
“Are you alright, Aoba?” Ren asked. He was sitting near the head of the bed, studying the child wrapped in Aoba’s arms. “You have been through a lot today.”   
“Mmm, I sure have. I’m okay, I’m just tired… ah! You haven’t been properly introduced yet, have you? Ren, this is the newest member of our family. Say hello to Lukas.”   
“Hello, Lukas.” Ren bowed his head. “It’s good to finally meet you.”

The baby cooed softly. Aoba grinned and hugged the baby closer to his chest.   
“Hehe… I think he said it’s good to meet you, too. By the way, is there any chance that you can monitor his health, too?”   
“Yes. There are applications that make monitoring a child’s health possible. Other Allmates can monitor children, so Noiz’s Allmate can watch over him too.”   
“Thank goodness. We’ll look into that later.”   
“Roger.”

The door opened gently and a happy, high pitched voice chimed though the air.   
“P! We finally get to meet Lukas! Hello, Lukas, hello!”   
“Shhh,” Noiz hastily muttered to his Allmate. He snatched the cube in his hands and brought it close to his face. “You’re noisy. The baby needs peace and quiet to rest.”   
“S-Sorry…” the cube whimpered. Noiz sighed softly.   
“It’s alright. But remember to be quiet when he’s sleeping.”   
“Roger!”

Midori shut itself off into sleep mode and Noiz and slipped it into his pocket. His eyes focused to the cooing infant in Aoba’s arms, currently fascinated by his father’s hair. His chest warmed with admiration at the sight of the two of them together.  
He couldn’t get over the shock—he had a _family_ now. _With Aoba_. Repeating the words over and over to himself didn’t make them seem any more real.

Noiz smiled softly and crawled into the tiny hospital bed. Aoba moved to give him ample room.   
“I just talked to Theo,” Noiz said, settling into his side of the cramped bed. “He wanted to come by tonight, but it’s really late already. He’ll be here tomorrow.”   
“’That so. Well, maybe he can help us take Lukas home.”   
“Yeah.”

Even if the bed was tightly packed, there was a thin bridge of space between Noiz and Aoba. The gap made itself noticeable when Noiz tried to lean over to look into his son’s face. The bed was already cramped, even if they were keeping their distance from one another. It bared a familiarity from the months Noiz spent in the hospital in Midorijima, the two of them trying to comfortably share what expanses of bed they could—when they weren’t using it for other things.

Noiz glanced down at the gap between them, then frowned.

“Mind if I move a bit closer?”   
“Of course not. Come here.”

Noiz moved in closer, so they were sitting shoulder to shoulder, bodies pinned closely together. Noiz grinned down at his son, but behind the happiness and obvious joy, Aoba noticed… something was off.   
Noiz was nervous.   
When Noiz first held Lukas, he was guarded, ever-mindful as if one wrong move would injure his son. He was elated, but the way he moved made it seem like he was afraid of making any wrong movement.

Just as he had behaved the time they went to the zoo and Noiz held a baby rabbit for the first time, he didn’t know what to do when holding something so small. Tiny things are prone to breaking, he said once. And he felt the same about their son.  
But despite the nervousness Noiz was feeling, it was clear that he wanted to hold their son more.

Noiz could feel things for several years now, but his past still clung to him—deep inside, he still held an unavoidable fear of hurting other people. He didn’t want to unintentionally harm their son because he didn’t know how children are to be handled. Aoba’s heart ached with the thought.   
It was important for Noiz to know he could hold his son without fear of injuring him. He needed to know that he was fine as he is, that he was gentle and didn’t need to be afraid.   
Aoba sat up a bit and cleared his throat.

“Hey, Noiz. Do you want to hold him?”   
“I… well, yeah.” There was hesitation in Noiz’s voice. Even if he tried to disguise it, Aoba knew him better than that.   
He sighed. “You won’t hurt him. I know you won’t. And even if you think you will, I’ll show you how to hold him properly, alright?”   
Noiz remained silent.   
“You trust me, don’t you?”   
“Of course—”   
“Then hold out your hands. You deserve to hold your own son without being worried.”

Hesitantly, Noiz did as Aoba asked. His muscles tightened up when Aoba settled the child and the bundle of blankets into his arms.   
“Relax, first thing,” Aoba commented. “He won’t be comfortable if you aren’t comfortable.”

Noiz did as Aoba told him and relaxed his muscles. He felt a slip of fabric fall off his arm and he nearly startled with fear. But finding his child safe—happy, gurgling while staring at Noiz—the worried panic floated away.

“See? You’re not going to hurt him.”   
“… Y-Yeah. You’re right.” Noiz’s voice was tight like he was suppressing tears. (Aoba couldn’t blame him, he had been a sobbing mess, too.)

Noiz sniffled and wrapped his arms tighter around Lukas, holding him more securely to his chest.

“Now rock him back and forth slowly. That should help him fall asleep.”

Noiz followed Aoba’s instructions, swaying his arms back and forth in a gentle motion. Sure enough, Lukas’ eyelids fluttered closed and he fell asleep in Noiz’s arms.   
Once his initial feeling of fear died down, Noiz breathed a sigh of relief.

“… You’ve only been a parent for a couple hours, and you already know how to take care of him.”   
“Ah, it’s not that impressive. I’m just following what the nurses told me. And I’m not the only one, you’re a papa too now. You’re his Vati.”   
Aoba brushed his finger against the baby’s chubby cheek. He cooed and stirred in his sleep and nestled closer into Noiz’s chest.

Aoba laughed to himself. “Vati Noiz… that sounds nice… _Vati Noiz_ … the best Vati ever…”  
Noiz chuckled with one eyebrow perked. “What are you blabbering about?”   
“Heh… nothing, nothing.”

Aoba hesitated, then broke into a tender grin. “I love you. I’m happy that I have a family with you. I’m glad you’re Lukas’ Vati.”   
Noiz quietly mulled over Aoba’s words, stunned by the gentle sincerity they held. He returned the smile and kissed his husband’s forehead.

“I love you, Aoba. You too, Lukas,” he added, rubbing his thumb over Lukas’ soft, thin blue bed of hair. “I love you two so much.”

Aoba leaned forward and brushed his lips against Noiz’s cheek, then rested his head on his husband’s shoulder. He yawned and closed his eyes. All of the adrenaline he had been running on was completely spent; his exhaustion finally caught the better of him as he drifted off into a quiet sleep.

Noiz rocked his son back and forth to drift him into a deeper sleep. He remained awake, watching over his family as they slept soundly.   
His family… The shock the word gave was still unrelenting. He never considered himself to be one for a family. His relationship with his parents was civil at best and Theo was the only family he ever really had before Aoba.  
Aoba was his family… but now not only did he have a husband, he had a son. A proper family.

… It still felt surreal. But he knew for certain this wasn’t a dream. This was reality. His son’s heart drummed against his palm and felt Aoba’s breath against his shoulder as he slept—sensations that promised him they were with him, not figments inside a dream.

From this day forward, Noiz thought to himself, he would watch over, protect, and love the two of them with his life. He would be strong not only for Aoba, or for himself, but for a new life that he would help raise.

Noiz closed his eyes and smiled. Finally, he had the family he had always wanted.


	5. "Like Father, Like Daughter"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt fill: "Shh, it's okay."
> 
> Their daughter, Aiko, wakes up from a nightmare. She relies on her parents to lull her back to sleep.

Aoba shut the door to his son’s bedroom quietly, being careful not to rouse the nine-year-old from his sleep.

“He’s still asleep,” he whispered to Noiz—who was doing the same for their daughter, carefully shutting her door closed. “Is Aiko?”  
Noiz nodded in affirmation and they both sighed with relief.

Their morning schedules were usually hectic, but their bedtime schedules were even worse. Not only did they have to deal with two children that didn’t want to go to bed at their bedtime, but they also had to deal with tidying up their apartment, cleaning the remains left from dinner, getting their children of them bathed and dressing for bed. And somehow along the line they still had find time for themselves.   
Their routine was long and tedious, but it wasn’t impossible by any means. Through a couple years of experience, they had become mastered at raising their two children.

But that night in particular, their daughter had given them the most hassle they’d had in months. She complained all throughout dinner about not wanting to eat and whined when Aoba tried to get her to take a bath. She was in the middle of a growing spurt and whatever she could find to complain about, she did and increased its drama tenfold.

Noiz and Aoba had worn themselves thin. They needed nothing more than a long night’s sleep to recharge.

They carried themselves down the hall towards their bedroom. Aoba—the most exhausted out of the two of them—fumbled with the door in an attempt to open it.   
Gingerly Noiz opened it for him, slung an arm around Aoba’s shoulders, and ushered him into bed. He grabbed the blankets and draped them over their bodies.

Noiz leaned over to kiss Aoba on the cheek. He lingered there, his chest pressed up against Aoba’s back.   
“Goodnight, Aoba,” he whispered lovingly.   
“Mmm… goodnight,” Aoba mumbled into his pillow, already nodding off to sleep when his head landed on his pillow.

Noiz laughed and rolled onto his back. Yeah, it was late… and yeah, he was tired, but he still had a couple of loose ends that he didn’t have to finish. They were planning a trip out to Midorijima for a couple days; he didn’t want to spend all his time on vacation working.

With a sigh, he grabbed his Coil from his bedside table and started it up. He glanced out of the corner of his eye to see if his husband stirred at the sound, but he didn’t seem to mind. Noiz wouldn’t be surprised if he had already fallen asleep.

He had begun sorting through documents he needed to read when he heard a noise. It was a light shuffling, like feet padding across thick carpet. He heard it coming from the other side of their bedroom. Curious, Noiz sat up a bit more and peered into the thin veil of darkness.

The soft green light from his hologram screens reflected into the bedroom and showed the faint impressions of their bedroom door swinging open. The silhouette of a small figure spanned across the walls of their bedroom as it creeped closer.

It was their daughter, carrying a stuffed animal in one hand, the other wiping away tears from her face.

The sight made Noiz’s heart sink.

“Aiko?” he called out to her. “Aiko, what’s wrong?”   
“I… I had a nightmare,” the little girl said between hiccups. “I c-can’t sleep in my bed anymore… t-there are m-monsters in there…”

At his side, the bed sheets rustled. He heard Aoba’s voice, weak and tired, call out.   
“Aiko…”

Overhearing the soft sound of their whispered voices, Aoba had pulled himself awake. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes and stared at their daughter, standing helplessly at the foot of their bed, unsure what to do with herself.

“Aiko, are you alright?”   
“She had a nightmare,” Noiz said. “Now she can’t get back to sleep.”   
“Ah…” Aoba glanced around—then suddenly, an idea came to him.

He shifted in bed and patted the bridge he created between Noiz and him.   
“Come sleep with us tonight then, alright? We’ll scare off any monsters that try to hurt you.”

Aiko nodded frantically and climbed into bed. She hugged Noiz tight, and Noiz hugged tight back. Aoba wriggled his arms around her and held her in a hug, as well.

“What sort of a nightmare was it?” Noiz asked, tone gentle and reassuring.  
“T-There was a monster…” Aiko murmured. Her eyes, glistening with tears, flitted back and forth between her parent’s faces. “It was a big, scary one. It wanted to eat you and Lukas… I would have been okay if it ate Lukas but… b-but it was so _scary_ …”

Aiko’s voice started to tremble and tears collected in the corners of her eyes. And before she could calm herself, she started to cry again.

She tried to hold back her tears, but to no avail; they continued to stream down her face as her panic got the best of her.

Noiz rubbed circles down Aiko’s back to soothe her. “Shh, it’s okay. I’m here. Papa’s here. We won’t let anything hurt you.”   
“You’re safe here. We’ll fight off any monsters that try to hurt you,” Aoba added for reassurance.

Aoba ran his hands through his daughter’s long, blond hair, mindful to not tug on any snags or cause her any harm. He knew that the gentle petting was relaxing, since Noiz did it to him when he couldn’t relax, either.

With the aid of her parents, Aiko’s crying eventually quieted down. She remained still for a while and, encased in the protective warmth of her parents, fell back to sleep.

She rolled onto her stomach and muttered something in her sleep. Noiz kissed the top of her head and wrapped her more securely into the sheets.   
“Rest well, _Spätzchen_ ,” he whispered.

The only sound in the bedroom was their daughter’s soft snoring. Noiz and Aoba stayed quiet so let their daughter fall asleep in peace.

But eventually, out of the silence, Aoba began to giggle. Noiz frowned.   
“Why are you laughing?”   
“Ah, I just remembered something she said… ‘I would have been okay if it ate Lukas.’ Made me laugh.”   
“Heh. She’s just saying that to be dramatic. You know she idolizes him.”

“It sounded like something you would probably say. Like father, like daughter, right?”   
“You think so? I don’t think I’d want anyone to get eaten by a scary monster.”   
“No, but she acts just like you do. Even as she gets older, she still relies on the ones she loves to protect her, right?”

Noiz hesitated to glance down at their daughter’s face. He wiped away the liquid remaining from her tears.   
“I guess you’re right.”

Noiz paused and clicked his tongue against his teeth. Suddenly his mood shifted from tender to teasing.   
“By the way, it’s not ‘like father, like daughter.’ It’s ‘like father, like son.’ And like father and son, you and Lukas are both stubborn morons.”   
“H-Hey! What was that for?”   
“Nothing. You’re just cute when you get flustered like that.”

Aoba glowered—if their daughter wasn’t fast asleep between them, he would reach over and bat Noiz on the cheek.   
“Go—to—bed,” he grumbled, adding extra emphasis between every word to make a point.

But Noiz continued to grin at him. “You’re even cuter when you’re mad.”   
“Gk! S-Seriously now, s-stop it…”

Noiz sighed softly and leaned forward. He kissed Aoba on the cheek then settled back onto his side of the bed.

Aoba tried in earnest to remain angry at his husband, but it was impossible when he had bright eyes fixated on him, filled with warmth.   
…And it didn’t make it any easier that Noiz looked adorable when he was holding his daughter…   
It couldn’t be helped—Aoba couldn’t remain mad even if he wanted to. His anger quickly died away and he replaced his pout with a tender smile.

“Goodnight, Noiz.” Aoba grabbed some of the sheets and pulled them tighter around him. “No staying up late on your Coil. Don’t think I didn’t see you trying to get work done. Save it for tomorrow, you need your rest.”   
Noiz sighed in annoyance, but didn’t try to argue with him. “Fine, fine… understood. I’ll go to bed, too. Goodnight, Aoba. I love you.”  
“Love you, too.”

Again they leaned forward for a brief kiss. They closed their eyes and, in unison, followed their daughter into sleep.


	6. Simple Happiness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Long days at work were nothing more than small sacrifices, as long as he could enjoy tender moments like these.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt fill: “I got the last slice of pizza. I’m gonna have to throw it up for you to get it!”

It didn’t take much for Aoba to notice that Noiz was exceptionally tired. It was evident enough in how Noiz held himself, how he slunk when he walked, when he fell into the couch, how he leaned his head back and sighed in exhaustion.

His husband was running on exhaust fumes again. It was miraculous that Noiz endured the entire day sleep-deprived.   
Aoba wanted to reward Noiz in any way that he can.

After he hung up Noiz’s jacket and necktie, Aoba fell into the couch by Noiz’s side.

“Long day at work?” he asked.   
Noiz could in only reply in one-syllable groans, anything more than that required too much energy. Aoba laughed.   
“So I’ll take that as a yes.”

He reached over and ruffled his husband’s hair affectionately. Noiz leaned further into the touch and closed his eyes, sighing with relief at the gentle touch. Aoba closed the bridge of space between them so he could kiss Noiz on the lips.

“Do you just want to order a pizza tonight? I’m quite tired, too—”   
Noiz’s eyes sparked with excitement—that riled his attention. He sat up and already fished his Coil out before Aoba could say another word. He was already typing away to order from the closest location to them. It was as if his exhaustion hadn’t existed at all.   
“We should get two, instead.” Noiz was already speaking again, with life and excitement as his hands moved across holographic keyboards. “One cheese and one pepperoni should be fine. Unless, of course, you want to get something else…”

Noiz glanced up from his Coil over to Aoba. His husband was staring at him in a daze, like he was frozen in place. Noiz puckered his lips in a deep-set frown.   
“ _What?_ ”

Aoba shook his head and laughed. “Ah, nothing. I was just thinking about you. You’ve grown so much… and I’m so proud of you for that. But you’re still just like that perverted brat I met in Midorijima. Your favorite food is still pizza… and you’re still a perverted brat.”   
The look on his face simmered from toying to gentle. “And you’re still really cute.”

Noiz slowly chewed this in bit by bit. A blush formed over his cheeks and, shyly, he averted his eyes.   
“Be quiet…”

He sighed and finished the work of ordering dinner. After a couple of moments and a few click of buttons later, Noiz turned off his Coil and sank back into the pillows.   
“They’re on their way now,” he mumbled. “And… uh.”

Noiz’s eyes wandered around the apartment. Everything felt peculiarly still, something wasn’t quite right. It was too quiet.   
He narrowed his eyes and flicked his gaze to Aoba, eyebrows narrowing, scrutinizing.

“Where are the kids?” he asked, puzzled.   
“Ah…” Aoba followed Noiz’s eyes around the room. Everything was ornate and in place, which was a rarity to see. It was like they hadn’t had children at all. He nodded towards the hallway, towards their son’s bedroom.

“They’re playing video games in there. They took the console and ran away with and told me I couldn’t come in.” Aoba sighed exhaustively. “At least Ren’s babysitting them to make sure they aren’t doing anything too stupid.”

Noiz rolled his shoulders in a shrug.   
“Well, in that case…”

His expression changed immediately; his eyes glazed over with a tepid excitement, one that made warmed the iciness in the green of the irises. He leaned forward, grabbed Aoba by his shoulders, and gently pushed him downwards— so that Aoba was sprawled out on his back.

Initially, Aoba gasped with surprise— but could easily tell what Noiz was after. He didn’t put up much of a fight and honestly… having Noiz’s devoted attention was nice. He had quite a long day, too, and they could both utilize what little remains of time they had in one another’s solitude.

Noiz leaned over Aoba and flashed a trademark, flirtatious grin.   
“If they want their alone time, maybe we can have our own?”   
When Aoba returned the grin, he leaned forward and kissed the corner of his mouth.

The kiss lasted for mere seconds as Noiz traced his lips down Aoba’s chin, to focus his attention to his husband’s neck. He nibbled and kissed over the skin—even devoted attention to his hair, taking in small pieces in his mouth and sucking on it playfully. Aoba whimpered at the stimulus, being mindful not to make too loud of a sound and startle their children.

He fought through the pleasant affection and shouldered Noiz away. He laughed softly and apologetically cupped a hand to his cheek.

“Hah, alright, alright! Just not on the couch, okay? They could still leave their room at any time—”

Before Aoba could finish speaking, he was cut off by the sound of children squealing and tiny feet padding across the apartment. In unison two young voices shouted _Vati’s home, Vati’s home!_ as they hurried down the hallway.

Aoba smirked and arched an eyebrow, triumphant in being proven right. Noiz rolled his eyes and broke apart from his husband just in the nick of time. Just as he returned to his spot on the couch, the two children stumbled into the living room and tackled Noiz by his shoulders.

“ _Vaaati!_ You’re home late!” Lukas whined, voice muffled into Noiz’s shoulder.   
“I know, I’m sorry. I had a lot to do at work today.”   
“It’s okay.” He nuzzled his father with the top of his head, something that Aoba did to him on occasion, too. “I missed you.”   
“I missed you, too. And you, Aiko.”

His daughter wriggled her arms tighter around Noiz’s neck and hugged him right. She was the quieter of the two children and usually let her older brother take reign in most conversation with their parents. She liked to study people to see how they would respond. After a couple moments, she finally opened her mouth to speak.   
“I missed you, too, Vati.”

He pulled both of his children in for a hug. The two of them shared both sides of their father’s lap as they squeezed him tight. Aoba watched on and grinned to himself, unconsciously scooting closer towards his family to be closer to them.   
Noiz noticed. He riled his children’s attention and nodded towards his husband.

“Hey you two, don’t forget about Papa. He suggested that we should get pizza tonight.”   
Lukas’ eyes widened. “Wha— _really_?”   
He stretched over Noiz’s lap into Aoba’s and wrapped him in a squeezing hug.   
“Thank you, Papa!”   
Their daughter followed close after, moving away from Noiz’s lap into Aoba’s. She kissed him on the cheek. “Yes, thank you Papa.”

Aoba laughed and hugged them closer.   
“You’re welcome, you too.”   
He glanced over to Noiz and chuckled. “Nothing like winning affection with bribery, huh?”   
“Bribery, huh? More like they’re easily predictable. They love you, but you’re always with them so they don’t show it all the time.”   
“I guess you’re right.”

Their children brought Noiz up to date about what happened during their days at school while they wanted. Before long, their apartment buzzer sounded the arrival of dinner. Lukas lunged off of the couch, to the front door, to let the delivery man up to their flat. The delivery man arrived soon after with two steaming cardboard boxes.

It had become an unofficial rule in their family to eat informal meals like pizza in their living room. It was more intimate here than in their kitchen and it was more convenient—with the children sitting on one couch, parents sitting on the other, dinner set on the glass table between the two.

They ate in a comfortable silence, all too starved to make any proper conversation. Only once the pizzas had been mostly devoured and their stomachs were full did they start to speak again.

“No, Uncle Theo will _not_ be taking you to candy stores this weekend,” Aoba huffed. “And if I find out that he did, you three will be in serious trouble.”   
“Aww!” Lukas exclaimed. “But that’s what we always do.”   
“I know. And that’s not healthy.”   
“But what about that café?” Aiko offered. “He takes us there sometimes. Can we go there?”

Aoba paused for a moment, then sighed in defeat. “Yes, I guess that’s fine.”   
He glanced over at his husband.   
“What do you think, Noiz?”   
“That’s fine. Well, I would have said the candy store was okay, too but— hm?”   
Noiz’s brows knit together in confusion. He had reached over towards the pizza boxes—he had sworn there was one piece remaining, one that he had his eye on but waited so his children could get their share. But now the box was empty. He frowned.

His gaze flicked to Aoba, who was the only one in the family who was still chewing.   
Noiz shook his head softly and drew a long sigh.   
“ _Aooooba_ ,” he drawled, accentuating every syllable on his tongue. “You ate the last piece, didn’t you?”

Aoba grinned triumphantly.   
“You were too slow,” he teased. “I got the last slice of pizza. I’m gonna have to throw it up for you to get it!”

Noiz shrugged. “That’s not a problem.”

He lunged forward, pinning Aoba in his arms. He began to tickle Aoba all over, focusing underneath his ribs where he was most sensitive. Aoba jumped with surprise and roared with laughter.   
“Hey… hey! Stop it!” Aoba said between frantic gasps of breath.

Noiz paused between his own fits of laughter. He grinned down at his husband, eyes ablaze with the excitement of a challenge.   
“Nope.”

Again he pinned Aoba down onto the couch—only this time not out of romantic whims, but out of holding him in place. He loomed over his husband and showered kisses over his most sensitive spots as his hands tickled his stomach. Even if Aoba tried to kick him away, he was laughing so much that he couldn’t properly stop him.

Noiz broke apart from him just long enough to turn to his children. He nodded down to Aoba.   
“Hey—help me? We need to teach Papa a lesson.”

And like that, the two children piled onto the heap on the couch. All three attacked and tickled Aoba all over; he tried to push and shove them away, but it was helpless. Three against one was an unfair battle.

“You three…” Aoba rasped between fits of laugher. “Let’s see how _you_ like it!”   
He joined in the game to seek his revenge. He tickled the three of them back. In a chain reaction, one of them fell off the couch and the others fell down along with them, landing on the floor with a heavy _thud_. That ended the game as they fell into an exhaustion.

Both children and parents sprawled out on the floor—panting, laughing breathlessly, and using each other as a pillow to rest on.   
Their stomachs ached with laughter and their limbs hurt from being knocked around, tossed onto the ground. But they were happy. Exhaustion is nice when shared with others.

Noiz propped himself up on his elbows and pulled Aoba, Lukas, and Aiko into his arms in a hug. While nuzzling his face against Aoba’s cheek, he closed his eyes and sighed peacefully.   
Long days at work were nothing more than small sacrifices, as long as he could enjoy tender moments like these.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My next planned fic for parent!noiao is going to be pretty long and I'm really excited to get around to writing it!! *v*


	7. New Beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the arrival of their newborn child, Noiz and Aoba have to decide a couple fundamental things--including designing his bedroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for day 3 of Noiz week-- which prompts were New Beginnings/Old Burdens. :3

“Green.”   
“Blue.”   
“… Green.”   
“ _Blue_.”

Noiz and Aoba stood in front of each other, each of them in the same position—arms folded over their chest, angrily frowning at the other.   
They were standing in the middle of a warzone—bits of cotton fabric thrown across the bedroom floor, cans of paint opened and filling the room with noxious fumes, stacks of unopened boxes of diapers, and plastic bags filled with an assortment of infant’s clothing.   
The months to when their baby would be born grew shorter and shorter and they needed to get their nursery assorted quickly. They had spent the beginning of the afternoon clearing out Noiz’s old study and rearranging their guest room into his new work space at home.   
Then came the difficult part—deciding just _how_ to decorate their baby’s bedroom.

Even weeks before, when they went out shopping to get most of the supplies necessary for their baby, they couldn’t reach a decision about what color to paint to buy.   
A couple of times Noiz would back down and side with Aoba, agreeing that a blue bedroom would be better than green… but then _Aoba_ would change his mind and say they should paint it green.   
And there they both remained after nearly an hour of debating, no more progress made in painting their son’s bedroom than when they started.

Noiz unfolded his arms and set his hands on his hips. With a sigh, he glanced down at the two open buckets of paint standing at their feet.   
“No matter which one we pick, it’ll look fine,” he said. “I don’t know why we’ve been contemplating this for so long.”  
“It won’t look fine with jus any color” Aoba huffed. He pointed at the color Noiz had picked out—a soft, light green. “Green will be too bright, he won’t be able to sleep at all.”   
“What makes you think that?”   
“I… I don’t really know.”

Aoba groaned and looked over the soon-to-be nursery room. “I want this place to be nice. When he arrives, I want everything to be perfect. And there’s not that much time left. It’s pretty scary to think about.”   
He laughed weakly at himself, rubbing the back of his neck in a soothing motion.   
“And I guess focusing on just one thing makes it easier than remembering that in two months, we’ll be parents.”

Noiz sighed, partially understanding what Aoba was getting at—the uncertainty parenthood carried with it terrified him. And for good reason; he was terrified, too. And for those reasons, deciding on even the most banal of choices was difficult, because they made the _biggest_ issues at hand feel insignificant.

Suddenly an idea came to Noiz, like a lightbulb finally flickering to life.

“Hey…” Noiz grabbed Aoba by the shoulder to catch his attention. “Why don’t we do _both_? We can keep the walls white, but have some parts painted blue and green. Or something. What about that?”   
“That’s… perfect.”

Aoba grinned then leaned forward for a kiss.   
“We could even paint little bunnies if you want to get that creative,” he teased as he turned back around to pour some of the paint into a basin.   
Aoba expected Noiz to blush and mutter his usual be quiet before he got to work too, but instead, his eyes lit up as he contemplated the thought.   
“… Can we, really?”

Aoba giggled and bent down, dipping his finger into the blue paint. He quickly swiped it across Noiz’s cheek before he could even react. He laughed even louder at the sight—blue against the red now quickly coloring Noiz’s face.   
His husband huffed and did the same—bending down to reach into the bucket of green paint.   
Then, laughing, they chased each other around the room, managing to get paint all over one another more than they did on the actual walls.

\- * -

The next two months were a blur.

They passed in the blink of an eye—a fumbled, hurried mess to organize everything they could, putting the last final touches on their soon-to-be child’s bedroom, childproofing the house, and buying extra toys, blankets, and clothing.

Noiz and Aoba worked up until the days before their due date, only finding themselves satisfied after there was no more work to be done.

But the hardest part, still, was coming to a decision on the colors of the walls. Ultimately, they chose on painting the room an even ratio of blue and green. The bottom half of the walls were a soft, forest green, accompanied by a couple rabbit silhouettes Noiz had attempted to paint. A broad line of white divided the room in two, then the top half of the walls were painted a serene, sky blue. The colors mirrored the earth—grass, clouds, sky.

Everything was organized for the upmost utility— the crib stood against the far left wall, above it a mobile of rabbits chasing after one another, dangling in the air, dancing in a lazy circle. On the far side of the wall, overlooking the tops of buildings from the city skyline, was a fully-equipped diaper changing station, with all of the necessities organized in a row.

Next to it stood a large, oak rocking chair, with a blanket with a pattern of blue and green bunnies draped over its armrests—a gift Tae had knitted for their newborn. Along the floor in small baskets, a plethora of stuffed animals and folded up onesies organized.   
After months, the nursery was finally _perfect_.

They admired their hard work in silence, but the air was soon disrupted by laughter. Aoba’s nerve-filled laughter.   
He rubbed the back of his neck and shifted his weight from foot to foot. No matter what, he couldn’t keep still. His excitement made him restless.

“Wow, it’s really happening,” he said, taking in the sight of their son’s bedroom one last time before swinging his gaze up to Noiz. “We’re going to be parents.”   
“I know.” Noiz stepped closer to Aoba and propped his weight on his shoulder. “Are you scared?”   
“Honestly? A little. We’ve read over as many books as we can, but... now that’s so soon, I’m worried.”   
He dipped into silence, unsure whether or not to ask the same to Noiz.

But Noiz read the look on his face, and replied before he could even ask.   
“I… I think I’m scared, too.”  
The light in Noiz’s eyes flickered immediately, the light from excitement dying out. He continued to knead his lower lip with his teeth as he thought. The pained look on his face held undermining fear one buried deep within, now breaking the surface.

“I heard once that you end up becoming the kind of parent your parents were to you,” he stated, voice grave. “Even if you try to avoid it, it happens because that’s what you’re used to. To think, that I could be like that… I don’t…”   
He didn’t have to force out words to let Aoba know what he was going to say. The uncertainty in his eyes said enough: _I don’t want to put my child through what I went through_.

Aoba’s breath left him as the brevity of his husband’s words bore upon him. Ever since they decided to have a child, Noiz had been eager to become a father. But there was that ever-constant fear that kept him at bay. Aoba knew that, but waited until Noiz was ready to address the issue instead of bringing it up himself. Hearing the words said out loud made it that much more painful.   
But… Aoba knew Noiz was completely different from his parents.

His parents had been completely unaware of their negligence. Their attempts to preserve their image were at the cost of their children’s happiness; by not trying to understand their children, they created a larger bridge between them.   
Because of that, Noiz knew how to love better than his parents could. Love was a precious thing to him, something that couldn’t be wasted or treated unfairly. Noiz devoted himself to the ones he loved with his life--he had already proven that to Aoba countless times again and again.   
He wanted to remind him of all of this, to take away the pain scar tissue couldn’t mend—but he didn’t know where to begin.   
“Noiz…” he whispered, inching closer towards his husband.

He wrapped Noiz into a hug and squeezed him tightly, thinking that maybe with enough force he could wipe clean his worries. Reluctantly Noiz gave into the hug, stooping down so he could nestle his head into Aoba’s shoulder.   
“You won’t turn out like that. I know you’re going to be an even better father than you give yourself credit for. You already care about them so much... I mean, look what you’ve done so far.”

Aoba slowly pulled out of their hug and gestured towards their child’s nursery—towards the pillars of stuffed animals, the rabbit mobile he spent weeks trying to find... all of the small, doting touches he had put in to make the room as special as possible.  
“Look at all of this. We did all of this together because we already love them. _You_ already love them.”   
He paused to look up at his husband. His little monologue seemed to have some effect, Noiz didn’t appear as hesitant as before. Aoba smiled reassuringly.   
“And you don’t have to raise them alone, I’ll be there with you. Always. If you’re ever uncertain about what to do, you can rely on me.”   
Noiz sighed softly, then nodded. “And there’s no need to get worked up already, when they aren’t even here yet. I’m sorry. I guess… I’m pretty nervous, too.”

Aoba kissed his husband on the corner of his mouth.   
“Don’t be sorry, we’re both worried messes. Now that the nursery’s done, we have nothing to do but think about all the bad things that _could_ happen. It’s just so real now... heh, I guess all we need now to stop all that is for our baby to come home.”   
Aoba’s attempt to lighten the mood must have worked, as Noiz upturned his lips in a tender smile.   
“Well, his due date is in a couple days. It could happen at any minute—”

He was cut off by a sharp sound piercing the air. A loud ringtone. It came from his Coil, which both startled and confused the both of them.   
“Huh? Who would be calling this late at night—”   
When he saw the caller ID on the hologram, his face paled. Worried, Aoba glanced over his shoulder to see…

_It was their surrogate mother._

Without a second thought, Aoba reached outwards, starting the call.   
There was the sound of static, something like jumbled sounds in the background. A meek female voice came in amongst the chatter.   
“H-hello?” the voice asked in German. “Noiz and Aoba Seragaki… correct?”  
“Ah, y-yes!” Aoba gasped, speaking quickly. “Are you okay? Has something happened?”   
“Well, my water just broke. A-And I’m at the hospital now. You should come as soon as possible.”

In unison both of their hearts stopped, then picked back up again twofold. Immediately, Noiz’s eyes shot over towards Aoba’s face— they both were wearing the same expression: a wide, elated grin, eyes wide both with fear and excitement.   
“We… we’re on our way!” Aoba managed bark out. He rushed out into the apartment, gathering up their Allmates in his hands. He haphazardly gave them to Noiz as he hurried back into the nursery, grabbing a large duffel bag set up for this exact moment. It was filled to the brim with probably more than they would ever need to bring. As he moved, Noiz could notice that he was trembling; the hand holding onto the bag tight unable to keep still.

He came back to Noiz’s side, and held his hand, as though the restore would alleviate his heightened tensions. His palms were clammy and his shaking reached all the way down to the tips of fingers, even making Noiz’s tremble slightly.   
He would tell him not to feel as afraid as he did, but he felt the exact same way. The moment they had been waiting and anticipating for 9 months was finally, finally here.

They lingered in the front of their apartment, the two of them hesitant to leave. A silent realization dawned over the two of them: this would be the last time they would leave their apartment as a family of two. From the first step they took out the front door, a new chapter in their life began.   
From now on, their family was bigger than themselves.

“Are you ready?” Aoba asked, with one hand readily grabbing for the front door.   
Noiz nodded and clasped tighter onto his husband’s hand.   
“Let’s go meet our son.”


	8. Our Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aoba and their two children have a special surprise in store for Noiz's birthday.

****Noiz had accidentally listened in on something he wasn’t supposed to hear when he arrived home from work a couple weeks ago.  
His family must have not heard the front door swing open, or heard his feet echo across the hardwood. He was hanging in front of the hallway closet to take off his suit jacket and his shoes when he heard his husband say _something._ He froze dead in his tracks, curiosity getting the better of him:

“So, what do you want to get Vati for his birthday?”

Next he heard something like his son jumping up and down ecstatically “O-Oh! We should get him… a bunny! A whole bunch of bunnies!”  
Aoba laughed. “Yes, yes, we could do that, but…” Noiz knew that tone well; it was the tone his husband used when he didn’t want to flat-out say no to his children, but not keep them with high expectations, either.

“What if we got him something with a little more meaning?”  
Then their daughter chimed in: “What do you mean?”  
“Well… hmm, I dunno. We should get… or make, maybe… something that he’ll remember forever. What do you think?”  
“That’s a good idea!” their children exclaimed in unison, then began spewing an assortment of other ideas.

Though he remained intrigued, Noiz quickly and quietly went to the bedroom to avoid hearing more of their conversation. He wanted his birthday gift to be a surprise, afterall.

Aoba and his children were not very good at preserving secrets as secrets, he had quickly found that out. He had to try his hardest not to pay attention to glaringly obvious hints towards that they had kept in plain sight…  
Which usually failed because his children would accidentally admit what they had gotten him days beforehand. Aoba was always overcome with grief at Noiz’s birthdays being spoiled, but he didn’t mind it whatsoever.

He didn’t particularly need gifts, anyway. As long as he had his family, he was content just staying at home, relaxing in their company.  
But now… imagining what sort of gift they would come up with together excited him.  
He couldn’t wait.

*

Aoba folded his arms over his chest, and met eyes with his husband in the reflection of their bathroom mirror.  
“Are you sure there’s no way you can stay home today?” he asked.  
“Unfortunately, no,” Noiz replied with a sigh. “There’s business partners coming in for a required meeting. We can't reschedule it again..”

He fastened his tie with the aid of the mirror as he spoke, tightening the fabric securely once the knot was in place. Then he turned around to face Aoba, offering him a reassuring smile.  
“But after that, I’m free to leave.”  
“Mmm, good.” Aoba kissed him on the cheek. “I want you to have the best birthday ever.”  
“It has already started out perfect. I have you, and Lukas, and Aiko.” He kissed Aoba back, directing his on the lips instead. “It can only get better from there.”  
“Pfft. You sap.”

Aoba laughed as he grabbed his hand, leading the two of them out of the bathroom into the hallway.

Noiz couldn’t make it out of the threshold of the door before he was mauled by his children.  
“Come _onnn_ ,” Lukas whined, tugging on the front of his suit as his other hand pointed at the front door. “Leave already, Vati! We gotta decorate the house, and make your cake, and wrap your gifts!”  
“Shh! He doesn’t get to know!” Aiko said, arms clawing at Aoba’s hip so she could be held in his arms. “You haf’ta leave before we can do any of it.”

Once at eye level with her father, she gave him the sternest glare a 4 year old child could—lips puckered, bright green eyes narrowed to slits.  
Noiz chuckled and lightly pinched her nose, wiping the glare away from her face.

“Well, if the kids say I should leave, then I should leave.”  
He stole another kiss from Aoba, then one on Aiko’s cheek. Then reached down and ruffled his son’s short blue hair. “Be back soon.”  
“But not too soon!” his daughter reminded him, “We have stuff to do.”

Aoba snickered, waving Noiz off with his free hand. “Be safe! And again, happy birthday.”

Noiz drank in the sight of his family one final time before shutting the apartment door behind him, ready and eager to finish his meeting as quickly as possible, to spend the rest of the day celebrating with the ones he loved.

*

Worked passed by in the blink of an eye—due to the fact that his sharp focus was less keen than usual.  
During their meeting, he would space out every once and a while for a few seconds. His attention diverted back towards his husband, towards his kids, and whatever they could have lined in store for him.  
An eagerness in the pit of his stomach, a nagging restlessness he couldn’t cute. He wanted to be home. Not confined in a meeting... _a meeting he should be paying attention to._  
Then he would return back to reality, quickly glance over towards his brother’s notes to see if he skipped out on any vital information (he hadn’t; he knew these meeting routines by heart), and continued listening as the conversation droned on.

Once the two companies had reached a consensus over bonds and shares, and after the routine hand-shaking greeting each other off, Noiz rushed for the elevator doors—before he was stopped short by his brother.

“Ah… brother!” Theo began, reaching into his inner suit pocket. “S-Sorry, I can tell you really want to go home, but I wanted to give you this before we began but there wasn’t enough time. Anyway—”

He pulled out of his suit a small box, carefully wrapped in red wrapping paper. He grinned as his other brother took the gift.  
“Happy birthday!” he cheered.  
“Thank you, Theo. I appreciate it,” Noiz said, reciprocating the smile.

Which quickly fell as he scrutinized the package in hand. “… Do you want me to unwrap this now? You could just bring it when you come for dinner tonight.”  
“Oh, no no, not yet! Wait until I arrive. I would forget about it if I didn’t give it to you now! I-It’s nothing too special, but I want to see your face when you open it.”  
He paused. The smile on his face softened in reverence. He stepped out of the way of the elevators to let his brother leave.  
“Enjoy the rest of your day with your family, alright? You deserve it.”

Noiz nodded and tucked the gift inside his own suit pocket.  
“Yeah. I will.”

*

Noiz hurried home as fast as he could. After rushing the apartment lobby up the stairs to the top floor--where their loft was--his lungs were screaming for air.

As he caught his breath, he lingered in the front of the apartment door. From inside, he could hear the combination of Aoba trying to keep his children in tow and their two children laughing wildly, getting a ruse out of flustering him. His husband eventually giving in and joining in to the laughter as well.  
The sound of happiness. A happiness that was his and his alone—his family.

As he grinned to himself, he brought his Coil up to the lock screen. The program made a soft _beep_ as it undid the lock.  
Immediately, the sound of laughter cut out, like a radio signal abruptly shut off mid-broadcast.

The silence in the apartment was almost deafening, like his family had been anticipating his return and all awaited seeing him with bated breath.  
Slowly he stepped into the apartment, welcomed to a chaotic mess as soon as he made it past the front hallway.  
Streamers and balloons all cascaded downwards from pieces of furniture they were taped up to. The swirling pieces of paper and plastic balloons were all variant shades of green, making the room practically glow green, as well. A couple streamers remained scattered over the ground, neglected.  
Clearly they hadn’t intended for Noiz to get off of work so early, because the decorations were only halfway finished.  
There was nobody in sight, either.

With a chuckle, he walked past the living area towards the kitchen—finding three faces, all of them stony and dead quiet, anticipating his arrival.  
They were huddled around the island in their kitchen, both children sat on stools to rest comfortably. On the counter, a cluster of bowls, spoons, and ingredients were lain out; spilled flour dusted the countertop white.  
In the middle of the chaos stood a cake on an ornate glass serving dish—one Theo had brought to their apartment a couple days ago at Aoba’s request. They had been in the middle of adding the finishing touches to his cake.

Aoba still held a rubber spatula in one hand, white frosting falling off of the handle and down his hand. His hair was tied up in a high ponytail, also, and the front of his apron was covered in cake batter, flour, and frosting.  
As were his children’s hands and faces, too.

Lukas was the first to break their stoic picture. He bolted out of his seat and ran fast towards his father. His socks slipped against the hardwood and he crashed face first into his father’s leg.

“Vati’s home! Vati’s home!” he cheered, seemingly undeterred by the weight his fall. He stood up straight and wrapped his arms tight around his father’s waist.  
After wiping her hands clean—which her brother had neglected to do—Aiko also ran towards, being much more careful on the hardwood; Aoba warned her not to slip and fall like her older brother did.  
“Vati’s home!” she cheered along, adding to the chorus of young voices cheering.

Noiz bent down (now noticing the sticky, sugary frosting lingering on suit jacket) and hauled her up into his arms. Lukas pulled out of their hug, grabbed his father’s free hand, and dragged him along towards the mess. He clamored back into his chair, pointing at the cake.

“Look what we made for you!” he cheered. “We’ve been baking it all day.”  
“It looks nice,” Noiz commented, admiring the detailed edges and “Happy Birthday, Noiz!” written in green frosting—such intricacy, he thought, for a simple birthday cake.  
“I can’t wait to try it.”  
He reached out to wipe some of the frosting from the side, before he was stopped by Aoba.

“Nope! Not until after dinner,” he warned, playfully narrowing his eyes at his husband. “I told them they couldn’t try the frosting either but, of course, they didn’t listen.”  
Noiz chuckled and leaned over the counter. He swiped his finger over Aoba’s nose, wiping clean a dab of green frosting. And licked it.

“It’s sweet.”  
“Of course it’s sweet, it’s cake! Ah… but is it any good?”  
“It’s delicious. You, Lukas, and Aiko made it. How could it not be good?”  
Aoba laughed softly and rolled his eyes. “You...”

He sighed defeat, then rested his hands on the counter. He leaned over kissed Noiz on the lips. Aoba was about to say something when their brief intimacy was cut short by Aiko tugging at Noiz’s sleeve.  
“Hm? What is it?” he asked, staring at the child in his arms.  
“Vati should open his gift now that he’s home,” Aiko said. She pointed towards a slim, square box sitting on their dining table, delicately made up in wrapping paper with alternating strands of blue, white, and green.

Aoba hummed while in thought, shooting a look over to Noiz. “Well, only if he wants to. Or we can wait until Theo comes over.”  
“Now is fine,” Noiz decided, stepping closer to the dining table, running his thumb over a gold bow on the gift’s upper right corner.

Aoba smiled with joy as he undid his apron, folding it neatly as he looked over the mess in the kitchen.  
“Okay, just let me clean up this mess real quick!”

*

Noiz waited patiently as Aoba cleaned up the mess they had produced-- tossed dirty dishes in the sink, wiped the counters clean, put the finishing touches on Noiz’s birthday cake. He insisted on helping but every time he stepped closer to the kitchen, his husband shooed him away. _It’s your birthday, after all!_ he insisted.

He decided to wait in the living room with his children— cluttered all around by decorations still needing to be hung up— to watch cartoons. Each child laid in his arms on either side of him, curled up close.

Eventually Aoba walked out of the kitchen with the gift in tow. Their children separated from Noiz as Aoba slunk into the couch beside him—each of them with a child nestled at their side.

“Happy birthday, Noiz.” Aoba set the box down Noiz’s his lap with a kiss on his cheek. “Are you ready to open your gift now?”  
“Of course,” Noiz replied.  
“We made it ourselves!” Lukas praised, curling his knees up onto the couch, looming over Noiz’s shoulder ecstatically. “It was Papa’s idea.”

He was aware of that. And for weeks now, he had been itching to know just _what_ that was.  
Carefully he cut through the wrapping paper and discarded it, pulling off the lid to the box inside with it.

When he saw what was inside, he felt his chest swell up and felt the back of his throat constrict with the onside of tears.

A scrapbook. Not any mere department-store-purchase scrapbook, but one carefully made by hand, the pages bound together with blue and green yarn, small Usagimodoki drawn on every corner. Pictures of their family were encased on the front—ones taken at the zoo, on their first days of school, at home, in Midorijima.  
On the bottom of the front, in Aoba’s handwriting, was written “Our Family.”

He flipped through the pages, and there were even more photos of the four of them. Written next to every single photo was a handwritten message, something expressing a memory from the photo.

“Visiting Uncle Koujaku and Uncle Clear! They’re so cool! … But not as cool as Vati. – _Lukas_ ” written on a photo taken just a couple months back, with Lukas propped up on Clear’s shoulders.

“Vati is so careful with rabbits!! – _Aiko_ ” written in Aoba’s handwriting on another. One of Noiz holding a rabbit out for a baby Aiko to see.

Pages upon pages were filled with photos, filled with memories.  
It wasn’t until he reached the final image in the book that he thought his heart would skip a beat.

It was a photo from their wedding—the same photo he had saved on his Coil, framed on his desk at work, admired whenever he was away from Aoba for too long.  
A picture of the two of them, donned in white suits, running down the aisle after making their vows.  
He loved that picture the most out of all of their wedding photos because of how _happy_ Aoba looked.

Then he looked at the message written below it.  
“Seeing Noiz so happy. Grinning bigger than I had ever seen before! But now I’m lucky enough to see that smile every single day. – _Aoba_.”  
His heart _really_ skipped a beat or two there.

Eagerly, he flipped to the next page, only to find that the rest of the book was empty—except for a small piece of paper kept in place underneath a plastic slit. He pulled it free and read:  
_Room for the memories we make throughout our lives together._

“A-Aoba…” he whispered, at a loss of what to say or where to begin.  
Again he closed the book and flipped through each page, finding himself overwhelmed the more he stared at the messages his family had left him. Only when he felt hot wetness running down his face did he realize he had begun to cry.  
He wiped his eyes and continued staring at the gift in his hands.

A hand brushed his shoulder. He looked up and found his husband smiling at him with the same sort of look he was probably wearing—tears were welling in _his_ eyes, too.  
“Do you like it?” he croaked, voice thick from holding back tears. “I… I couldn’t think of anything to get you that you didn’t already h-have, a-and I thought this… having the kids w-would… be meaningful.”

“I love it,” Noiz said, lunging forward into a hug. His children sneaked under and joined their hug. “I love _you_. And you, Lukas. And you, Aiko. I love you all so… so much.”

He held them for what felt like ages, only breaking apart once he felt less overwhelmed. Lukas pulled away but remained close to his side; Aoba wiped his own tears clean before scooping Aiko into his lap.

“T-Thank you for such a good birthday,” Noiz sniffed, drying his eyes yet again.  
“You’re welcome,” Aoba said, resting his head against his husband’s shoulder. “I’m glad you like it.”

“But Vati’s birthday is not over yet,” Aiko said as she climbed out of his lap. She pointed to the time on his Coil. “There’s still time to make it even better!”  
“Yeah!” Lukas said, bolting from the couch to grab one of the abandoned streamers. “We still have decorations to hang up, anyway!”

Aoba laughed. “Ah yeah, I forgot about those when the cake was ready… oops.”  
“It’s okay,” his son said. “We can do them now! Hand me the tape, Aiko.”  
They watched as their children worked in unison, tacking streamers wherever their tiny bodies could reach.

After a couple moments, Aoba leaned in close towards Noiz. He kissed him on the cheek and lips lingered against the nape of his neck, sending a faint shock of warmth throughout his body.  
“By the way… you have a couple more gifts to open,” he whispered lowly. “Especially _later tonight._ ”

He kissed Noiz on the back of his ear. And as soon as he drew away, his entire face flushed red with embarrassment.

“Hey, Papa, are you okay?” Lukas asked, mouth wide as he gaped at his father. “You’re all red!”  
“A-Ah… I’m fine!” Aoba barked. Noiz could _feel_ his embarrassment rolling off in waves now.

“Hmm…” Noiz said, drawing his brows together with a feigned look of contemplation, nesting his chin between his thumb and index finger. “Maybe Papa _is_ feeling sick. I should take him to bed and let him rest for a bit, just to make sure he’s okay.”

Out of the vicinity of their children’s gaze, Noiz flicked his gaze over towards Aoba—a teasing grin creeping over his face.  
Aoba scowled. “ _No._ I’m fine.”  
“But shouldn’t we make sure that you’re feeling top-notch for the rest of the day? Best be safe.”

“Yeah, Papa!” Aiko said, tugging on his shirt sleeve. “It’s okay to take a small rest. Lukas and I can finish decorating… Vati can help us.”  
Noiz sucked in a breath between his teeth. “… Maybe you two should take a break for a while as I look over Papa. You’ve been working really hard all day. Once he feels better, we can finish decorating together.”  
He brushed his hand against where Lukas had smeared frosting over his suit. “And I should get into something… less messy.”

“Okay!” Lukas cheered, grinning wide. “We can finish wrapping our own gift for you! We got a—”  
“Shh!” Aiko hissed, cupping her tiny palm over her brother’s mouth. “ _He doesn’t get to know_!”  
“Ohh… right. You don’t get to know, Vati! You don’t get to know!”

The two of them ran off, hand in hand, up the loft stairs to their bedrooms. Aoba sighed in defeat and folded his arms over his chest.

“Okay, _fine._ But… what if Theo arrives by then?”  
“It’s only 3:00 right now. He said he wouldn’t be over until 6:30.” Noiz smirked. “How long do you think you’ll be _resting,_ anyway?”

Aoba stammered, useless in coming up with a comeback. Noiz laughed and rose from the couch, scooping his husband in his arms in one smooth gestures. Embarrassed, Aoba buried his face into his hair and let himself be carried—to let his husband indulge in one of his birthday gifts early.

His birthday was perfect.  
He couldn’t ask for anything more in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for Noiz's birthday. Happy birthday, you deserve all the happiness in the world. :')


	9. Nothing to Fear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A couple of months before they welcome their second child into the world, Noiz and Aoba take Lukas to a new park.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt fill: The family goes on a trip to the playground. Posted on tumblr [here](http://seventhimpact.tumblr.com/post/124991660783/prompt-parent-child-meme-the-family-goes-on-a)!

“Papa! Vati! I’m gonna go on the slide again, watch me!”

The young five year old merrily hopped away from his parents, climbing up the colorfully decorated steps to the top of the giant playground. When he was at the very top, in line with a bunch of other young children, he searched around for his parents. He found them and waved his arms ecstatically.

Noiz and Aoba waved back, softly laughing amongst themselves.

“Lukas really likes this place, huh,” Noiz said, watching as it became Lukas’ turn and he disappeared inside the plastic chute. “Even more than the one closest to our home.”   
“I don’t blame him,” Aoba replied. “It’s much bigger, too. More kids that aren’t rich and snooty. If I were small enough, I’d probably go play with him. Wouldn’t you?”

Just then, their son emerged from the slide and came bounding towards them. Noiz mimicked the large smile on his son’s face. He scooped up his son and ruffled up his messy blue bed of hair.

“Yeah, I would. Should we visit this park more often, Lukas?”   
“Mmhm!” their son exclaimed while nodding. “I like this park a lot! Next time let’s bring Ren! And Midori! And and and! When my brother or sister come and are big enough, them too!”

Noiz’s smile faltered by the faintest degree, but nonetheless he nodded and ruffled up his hair again. “Of course. If you like it here, we’ll go more often.”   
Lukas laughed and squirmed about in his arms, begging to be released. Noiz set him down and the young child went running straight for the playground again, towards an empty swing set.

Aoba watched as their son ran off; once he was out of sight, he nudged Noiz on the shoulder.   
“Hey, is something wrong? You seemed a little weird when he mentioned the baby.”   
“Yeah, I’m fine.” The abrupt tone in his voice said otherwise, however.  
“Are you still thinking about that? About them?”

Noiz’s lips quivered as though he wanted to speak, but couldn’t muster the words out. _Bingo_.   
Aoba remained quiet as he gave his husband time to ruminate. After a couple minutes passed in silence, Noiz closed his eyes and spoke.

“Our surrogate called me earlier today. She didn’t say… anything too interesting… but I started thinking about that again. The what if’s that could happen.”

All those _what if’s_ summarized as him not feeling capable enough to raise their next child. Even if they had gone over every possible what-if situation that could happen, Noiz was still concerned about what would happen if his child was born with the same affliction he had. Aoba couldn’t blame him— knowing that within the next couple of months, a child that he helped create would soon enter the world was terrifying.

They both shared that same hesitant feeling when they first planned on having Lukas; they both worried if Lukas would develop the same headaches that Aoba had. But he was perfectly healthy and showed no signs of carrying the same phenomena.

Aoba knew Noiz was destined to be a good father; he knew that well before they were married and decided to raise a family together. And Noiz _was_ a good father. He was exceptional, even; he was more caring and focused on his son’s happiness than he gave himself credit for. By worrying about making the same mistakes his parents had made, he had become an even better parent than Aoba knew him to be. His main priority always was his children’s happiness.

But Noiz had a good reason as any to worry about his child. Aoba didn’t want their child to be born with the same ailment, either. But even if they were, he’d love them just the same.

Aoba folded his arms over his chest and sighed. “I’ll tell you as many times as I have to, everything will be okay. You’re not doing this alone.”   
“I know, but... I can’t explain it, but... I can’t stop thinking about if they have it, and—”

Noiz was cut off by a loud thump, then an even louder bawling. Paternal instincts kicked in before the rest of their brain, and their feet started running towards the noise before they realized what they were doing.

They quickly realized that the crying came from their son. Lukas was curled up on the ground, with his hands cupped around his reddened and sore knees. When the young child saw his parents rushing forward, he only started crying harder and tried to scramble off of the floor.

Dread spread over Aoba’s body, chilling him down to the bone. The sound of his son’s crying made his heart sink deep into the pit his stomach.   
He knelt down on the ground in front of him, finally getting a good view of the injuries on his legs—the skin was grazed and blood oozed out of the painful abrasions.   
“L-Lukas…” Aoba touched Lukas’ shoulder to try and get the child’s attention. “Are you alright? What happened?”   
“I… I was on… sw-swi-swing… a-and… I f-fe…” He was barely comprehensible between his sobs. He collapsed into his father’s arms and buried his face in his shoulder as he continued to cry.

Aoba felt Noiz lean down next to him and rest a hand against his back, the other wrapped around their son, comfortingly massaging circles into his back.   
Their eyes met and they both had the same look of concern on their faces.

“I think we have an emergency kit in the back of the car,” Noiz said, glancing in the direction where they had parked. “I’ll go get—”   
“No, I’ll go get it. I know exactly where it is. Will you take care of him?”

Noiz nodded and carefully took Lukas out of Aoba’s arms; he held onto him tight and carried him off of the playground, speaking to him as he brought him to a nearby park bench. At the same time, Aoba left for the parking lot, found the plastic case sitting in the back of their car, and hurried back with it in tow.

But now he was lost. He had no idea where Noiz took their son, and he couldn’t find them in plain sight. He had been too focused on getting the emergency kit that he hadn’t noticed which way they had gone.   
He wandered around aimlessly down the park’s pathway, searching for his son and his husband. Paranoia had just began to settle in when he saw them, secluded and away from the other families in a clearing of trees, sat at a picnic table. Lukas was sitting on the table and Noiz was standing in front of him, mending his son’s injuries.

The strangest thing, however, was that Lukas wasn’t crying anymore. In fact, he had started _laughing._

Aoba approached his family but kept a safe distance between them, not wanting to intrude on such an intimate moment; as he got closer, he could see that Noiz was using a handkerchief to wipe away the traces of blood and to stop the bleeding.

“…And you remember the last time you had to get shots?” Noiz said, smirking as he recalled the memory. “Your Papa was so worried about you being scared, but _he_ needed to leave because he was scared of seeing the needle.”

Aoba felt a sting of hurt to his pride, but when he heard his son laughter, he couldn’t be upset.

His husband continued. “But even if he’s scared of needles, Papa’s still strong, right? He takes care of you when you’re sick and he helps you when you have nightmares. We all have times when we get hurt or get scared, and we have other people to help us... he taught me that.”

Lukas sniffed and wiped away the remnants of tears from his face. He wrapped his scrawny arms around his father’s neck and kissed him on the cheek.   
“S-So you’re not mad?” he murmured.   
Noiz hugged him back and kissed his forehead. “Of course not. Don’t feel guilty because you made a mistake. We just want to make sure you’re not seriously hurt.”

Touched, Aoba moved in closer. Lukas saw him first, smiling wide and pulling out of his hug with Noiz. Aoba kissed him on the forehead and set down the first aid kit, unlatching the front.

Noiz moved in behind him to grab disinfectant wipes and bandages. “Does it still hurt?” he asked.   
“N-No, not really,” his son said, then frowned. “Well, a little...”   
“Well that’s no problem!” Aoba said. He puffed up his chest and spoke in a boisterous tone. “I know _Lukas the Brave_ will let us heal his injuries for him, right?”

His son giggled; he was distracted enough to hardly feel the sting of pain as they wiped his abrasions clean.

*

After they disinfected his grazes and put bandages over the worst of the injuries, Lukas insisted that they let him play for just a while longer. This time, however, he was much less reckless; even still, Noiz and Aoba kept their eyes on him as he played on the playground with the other children.

“So what sort of conversation did I miss out on?” Aoba asked.   
“Lukas was feeling bad because he promised us he wouldn’t get hurt,” Noiz said. “He still felt guilty even if I told him it was okay, so I cheered him up.”   
“By making him laugh about me?”

Aoba pouted, but his annoyance faded away as quickly as it came. “But I’ll admit… you did a good job of it. Cheering him up, that is. And cleaning his injuries. And… everything.”   
He stayed silent for a moment, then sighed and rested his head against Noiz’s shoulder.   
“You know, I don’t think you should be worried at all. You’re already the best dad Lukas could ever have… our next one is just as lucky to have you as their father.”

“Yeah, I was being too narrow-minded earlier. Because it’s not just me, it’s all of us. She’ll have you and Lukas, too, who will love her no matter what. Even… if she’s born with the same thing I had. It’ll be different this time.”   
“Yeah. We will all be there to— W-wait, _what_?”

Aoba folded his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes. “ _She?_ What is that supposed to mean!?”   
“Oh…” Noiz rubbed the back of his neck. He looked away— and the faintest, most embarrassed blush colored his cheeks. “Our surrogate asked if wanted to know, and… I was curious. Sorry. I was going to tell you soon, but I wanted to surprise you with it.”   
“Well you surprised me now!”

Flabbergasted, Aoba flung his arms around Noiz’s neck and kissed him, filtering out the sound of children and passer’s by. He broke apart and shook his head, still trying to process the information in his head.   
“A girl… _really,_ a… _girl_. Wow. We’re going to have a girl… I can’t wait to meet her.”

Noiz hugged Aoba back and sighed happily. “Neither can I.”


	10. Knight in Shining Armor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aiko asking questions out of the blue was nothing new; she was at the young age where the entire world around her was fascinating, and she wanted to know as much about everything as she possibly could. Her brother had been the exact same way when he was four.
> 
> But he wasn’t expecting her to ask him, so suddenly without any rhyme or reason—
> 
> “Vati, what’s a soulmate?”

"Alright, you two. It's time for bed."

Aoba stepped in front of the television screen, obscuring his children’s view of their game as he shut the console off. The two groaned and began the throes of a tantrum, only to be cut off short by their father.

“Oi. Listen to your Papa,” Noiz sighed, ruffling up both of their hair to sweeten the blow of his words. “You were supposed to be in bed an hour ago.”

“But—!” Lukas began to argue. Quickly he found it a lost cause. " _Fiiiiine_."  
With an exaggerated groan, he lifted himself off the couch and stomped begrudgingly to his bedroom. He made his steps as loud and as heavy as possible to show his disdain. He was all talk, but no fight.

Aiko, the younger and the pacifist of the two, yawned and followed after her brother to her own bedroom. Before she left her parent’s line of view she turned back around, rocking back and forth on her heels.  
“I’ll get my own pajamas on, don’t need help!" she said with a proud grin. She ran off towards her bedroom before either parent could get a word in to stop her.

Aoba sighed with relief and sank into the couch where their children just were. He cupped a hand to his mouth to hide a yawn, though failing.  
“Ah… it’s a miracle,” he murmured as Noiz took a seat beside him, a hand naturally wrapping around Aoba’s shoulders. Aoba rested his weight on his husband’s shoulder and closed his eyes peacefully. “They went to bed… for once… without making a fuss.”

“It’s because they know how you get when you’re tired. I think it’s someone else’s bedtime, too." Noiz smirked, nudging Aoba with his elbow. “You’re falling asleep on me.”  
“Ahm not…” Another yawn deceived him. Aoba sighed and curled up closer to Noiz’s side. “Okay, maybe I am… just a little.”  
“Heh, just go lie down. I’ll put the kids to bed.”

Aoba lifted his head, brows pinched together with a look of borderline terror.  
“All by yourself? You sure?”  
“Of course.”

Noiz stood up from the couch and kissed his husband on the forehead. “Take a break tonight, you deserve one.”  
Aoba made a face like he was preparing a rebuttal, but he stopped himself with a small sigh. “Alright then. Thank you, Noiz.”

Before Noiz turned to leave, Aoba reached up and held him in place by the sleeve of his shirt. He rose to his feet as he pulled Noiz in closer, intent on planting a kiss against the corner of his mouth.  
He covered his mouth to hold back another yawn, but failed yet again. “Mmh… g’night.”

Feet shuffled across the floor as he carried himself towards their bedroom— he was probably half-asleep already, Noiz guessed, just barely staying awake enough to keep himself upright.

Noiz didn’t have to ask to know why Aoba was so tired; lately, he had been overexerting himself, taking care of as much housework as possible so that Noiz could focus on his work. He also lent a helping hand for whatever work Noiz had left over after work, to try and lessen the load so his husband could relax a little. Noiz appreciated the gesture, but he'd been concerned that this would happen—his husband would wear himself too thin and wouldn't give himself a break to recharge. He wanted to take reign of the responsibility for a while, to let Aoba rest.

Aoba’s determination towards making their family as happy as possible motivated him into working even harder for the same thing.

Noiz turned off the lights to the living room, turned off the television, and reorganized their living room to make things just a bit easier for Aoba in the morning. Once satisfied, he walked down towards Lukas’ bedroom… his lights were still on and he could hear him audibly whining from behind his door. Noiz knocked on his door to gather his attention.

His son whined louder and called back— “ _I don’t wanna yet! Gimme a little longer.”_  
Noiz shook his head, curtly exhaling a sharp breath. “Nope.”

He opened the door wide, finding his son stubbornly sat on his floor, adamant on not going to sleep. _Stubborn, just like his father._

Lukas’ lips puckered in a pout as he pulled himself off his floor.  
“Why do I have to go to bed right now?” he whined. He threw himself face first into bed, legs thrashing about as they dangled off the side. He continued to complain into his pillows, voice muffled. “’m older ‘an Aiko, I should be able t’stay up later!”  
“You have school in the morning, Aiko doesn’t. And besides,” he added, lips curling into a smirk. “You’re just like your father. If you don’t get enough sleep, you’re cranky.”  
“But…”

Lukas’ eyes flitted around his bedroom, trying to find something to throw an excuse onto. The first thing he landed on was his Coil, sitting on the side of his bed. His body sprang up to retrieve it, eagerly rifling through it to pull up a game’s title page on a hologram screen. He turned to Noiz with an excited grin, eyes wide and pleading.  
“I was gonna defeat the final boss in that game you showed me! Can I just do that, I’ll do that then I’ll go to bed pleaseVatipleasepleaseplease?”

Lukas was cunning, far more cunning than any eight year old should be. He knew how to play his parents like a fiddle, knew that giving them a puppy-eyed stare or pretending to cry was more than enough convincing into getting what he wanted.

But he was a kind, generous kid, too; he didn’t use his powers for bad all that often… or at least, not on anything too serious. He used it more on innocent things like this, convincing them to let him stay up later or sneaking another cookie after dinner.

Noiz sighed in defeat, then stuck in a hand inside his pocket. He pulled out his Allmate and set it down on his son’s bedside table.  
“You have half an hour,” he warned. “After that, you need to be asleep. And be quiet, you know your Papa will get mad if he finds out.”

Noiz pressed on the cube’s head; its eyes lit up as it powered to life. “P!”  
He knelt down so he was eye level with Midori. “Keep an eye on Lukas. If he isn’t asleep within 30 minutes, notify me.”  
“Roger! We will watch Lukas!”

His son held his palm out and the cube jumped into it with a delighted sound; he brought it up close to his face to touch his nose against it, giggling.  
Contented, Noiz stood up to leave. However he paused mid-step, turning back around with a mischievous look on his face.

“Ah, one other thing. If Lukas tries to turn you off—” Noiz met his son’s eye and grinned playfully. “Self-destruct.”  
“Roger!” Midori cheered, gleefully bouncing up and down in the child’s hands.

“M-Meanie!” Lukas huffed, sticking his tongue out at his father. “I wouldn’t do that to an Allmate!”  
“Then I shouldn’t have to worry about you staying up late, hm?” Noiz’s tone was gentler, the teasing in his voice replaced with an ever-present love. He reached over and ruffled up his son’s blue mess of hair. “Goodnight, Lukas.”

With one long, lingering glance, Noiz turned back around and closed his son’s bedroom door behind him.  
He took slow, tired steps down the hallway towards his daughter’s room, knocked on the door twice, and shouldered her door open.

Aiko was sitting in her bed already, proud of herself for getting herself ready all on her own. Mounds of pink and blue stuffed animals of all sorts— rabbits, birds, cats— surrounded around her like she was a princess and it was her throne. Her bright green eyes lit up at the sight of her father.  
“Vati gets to read a bedtime story!”

She eagerly lifted up what she held in between her hand— the bedtime story she had already picked out.  
The same one he and Aoba read for her almost every night, a story about a rabbit that lost her way going home and all of her animal friends helping her on her way back. Noiz could read it by memory perfectly by now. The book’s spine was on the verge of breaking and the pages threatened to spill out night and night again, but Aiko refused to read any other version than this one. As a birthday gift Aoba had bought her a newer version, but she continued to cry and wail the entire time he tried to read it.

He knew her answer already, but he felt like asking it regardless, because he knew it would amuse her— “Are you sure you want me to read this tonight?”  
“Mmhm, silly!” she said, holding the book for him to take. “Vati’s the best at reading it… ah, b-but don’t tell Papa that.”  
Noiz laughed. “I’ll keep it a secret. Promise.”

He took the book from his daughter and took his place perched on the side of her bed. He drew in a long breath, flipped open to the first page, and began to read.  
“Once upon a time, there was a little white rabbit...”

...

..

.

Reading the story once was more than enough, but Aiko’s pestering chided him into another reading. Finally satisfied, Aiko tucked underneath her blankets and had begun to fall asleep. Noiz watched over her as she drifted off to sleep, not moving until he was almost certain she was asleep.

Just when he was certain, when he stood up to turn off her light and leave— he felt a something clutching onto his shirt sleeve. He glanced downwards to find Aiko stirring awake, yawning as she drew her gaze up to her father.

“Vati… don’t go yet. I gotta question,” she murmured sleepily, tugging on his shirt sleeve again to make sure he didn’t budge. Noiz willingly gave in, kneeling back at her side.  
He readjusted her sheets and retucked one or two stuffed animals threatening to fall to the floor. “What is it?”

Aiko asking questions out of the blue was nothing new; she was at the young age where the entire world around her was fascinating, and she wanted to know as much about everything as she possibly could. Her brother had been the exact same way when he was four.

But he wasn’t expecting her to ask him, so suddenly without any rhyme or reason—

“Vati, what’s a soulmate?”

… Noiz’s first thought was _where_ did such a loaded question come from, and why? There had been a movie on television earlier that day, one of the ones with princesses cursed to an eternal sleep until true love’s first kiss awaken them. That must have been where her question came from.

But what was he to say? He didn’t entirely know the answer either. And how do you explain to a child something you couldn’t even explain to yourself?

Whatever he said, he had to say it earnestly— speak straight from the heart, that was the only way to answer such an obtuse and loaded question.

He closed his eyes with a sigh. “Well… there are some people that believe a soulmate is someone who you were destined to find and be with. Others believe that they’re your other half, and when you find them, you feel whole. I think it’s both.”  
“I see…” Aiko nodded sleepily. “So… it’s someone very, very special?”  
Noiz nodded.  
“So was the knight the princess’s soulmate?”  
“Yeah.”

“So… is Papa your soulmate?”  
Aiko stared at her father, wide eyed and curious. He remained silent, stunned by her unexpected question, before breaking into a tender smile.  
“Yeah. He is.”

He dipped into a reverent silence, his smile waning slightly. After a couple moments he sighed and spoke again.  
“There was a time when I thought I didn’t have a soulmate. I thought it was better if I lived on my own, so what good would having a soulmate be? However…”

He turned back to his daughter, noticing that he had begun to smile again. He always smiled when thinking about Aoba. “Your Papa changed all of that. He showed me the light. He showed me that I didn’t have to be alone. And now I have him, and I have you, and Lukas. I’ve never been happier.”

Aiko nodded sleepily, pulling herself out of bed to wrap her tiny arms around him in a hug. He hugged her back and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, inwardly feeling grateful for her warmth and the _ability_ to feel his daughter’s embrace.

“So… you were like that princess,” she pulled out of their hug to stare up at him. “And Papa was that knight. He rescued you!”  
Stunned for the second time in a row, he stared at her blankly before letting out a small snicker. “Yeah, you’re right. He did.”

He gently set his daughter down and tucked her into bed, wrapping the blankets tight around her. “Someday you’ll find your own soulmate. They’ll make you happy every single day, in new ways that’ll always surprise you.” He kissed her on the forehead while reaching over to shut off her bedside lamp. “Goodnight, Aiko.”  
“Goodnight, Vati.”

Noiz left with quiet steps, being careful not to wake her from her sleep a second time.  
As soon as the door was shut, he breathed a sigh of relief. Exhaustion rolled over him in waves, pelting him over and over. It had been a _long_ day for him, too.

Aoba was sound asleep when Noiz finally finished cleaning up the house and finishing up a couple loose ends for work. He held Ren close to his chest and the mound of blankets around him moved with his steady breathing.

He looked breathtaking, just like a princess in an eternal sleep, waiting for true love’s kiss to stir him awake…

Humored at the thought, Noiz leaned over to kiss his husband’s cheek.

A couple moments ticked by in silence before the sheets rustled, and Aoba groaned.  
“NNhh… Noiz…”  
He muttered something incoherent and fell back asleep just as quickly, lips upturned in a tranquil smile.

While thinking about what he had told his daughter, Noiz realized just how lucky he was. Contrary to what he had told her, he knew that not everyone in the world finds a person who could even begin to be truly called a “soulmate”-- though he hoped his daughter and his son would be as lucky as he’d been.

Even in his wildest dreams, Noiz hadn’t thought it possible-- hadn’t believed that such a person could be real, enter his life, and willingly choose to stay.

And yet, here he was, sleeping soundly in his own bed, in the house and in country he called home. Here to stay, forever by his side.

Noiz wasn’t sure if he believed in a soul, or in anything that couldn’t be proved with his own eyes. But when he looked at Aoba as he slept, he couldn’t help but feel thankful to whatever force in the universe that had granted him this happiness, this bliss, all the feelings he had missed out on for so many years.

Someone, some _thing_ out there must have liked him, must have thought him worthy enough to send him his own knight in shining armor, to free him from the darkness he had been encased within. That, and giving him someone to love and grow old with.

As Noiz tucked himself into bed beside his husband, he decided that he didn’t mind being the “princess”, so long as he had Aoba as his prince.

Fairytales and fantasies had nothing on what they had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got a piece of dialogue stuck in my head and I wanted to contextualize it. Big thank you to [Lauren](http://archiveofourown.org/users/DancingwithDestiny) for beta-ing for me. <3


	11. Verheilen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lukas noticed something about his father, something that was off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Verheilen: To protect

Noiz sighed, hauling his son onto his shoulders to keep him from running off.

“Oi, no running away,” he warned, holding Lukas’ tiny legs to keep him stable. His son tried to flail and kick himself free, but gave up quickly. “You’ll get lost in a busy place like a mall.”

“B-But—!” his son cried, too exasperated to express himself in words, relying on gestures alone. He pointed frantically towards Aoba, heading out of one of the several stores looking discouraged and empty handed. “Papa! Papa!’

“Papa’s buying you a gift for your birthday,” Noiz reasoned, bouncing his son a couple times to keep him happy. “You don’t want to ruin the surprise, do you?”

“No,” Lukas whined. He hugged his arms around Noiz’s head, resting his chin on his father’s head. “I’m hungry, though…”   
“Me too.”

Noiz paused.

“Hey, if you don’t tell Papa, we can go get something to eat. Donuts?”   
“Mmhm! Can I walk with you, Vati?”   
“Only if you don’t try and run away again.”   
“I promise!”

Noiz hesitated for a moment before hoisting Lukas off of his shoulders. He offered his hand out to his son, which he took eagerly. He pulled his father along, leading him towards the food court.

While waiting in line, Lukas discovered something he had never noticed before— the hand he held on to was wrong. Not wrong, but… different. Two fingers were bent out of place, forming a slight hook that made it easier for his tiny hand to grab onto.   
He glanced at all the adults around him, none of their hands looked like his father’s. _Strange_.

His juvenile curiosity only grew in size. During the entire time they ate their donuts, with Lukas sitting in his father’s lap, he couldn’t stop staring at his hand.   
He wanted to know.

Lukas turned around in his father’s grip, staring up into his father’s face.   
“Vati, I gotta question,” he said, being indiscrete as he wiped the powdered sugar off his hands on his father’s shirt.  

“What is it?” Noiz said, staring at the obvious stain on his sweater, lips narrowing in a frown.

“What happened?” he pointed with his free hand towards his father’s hand, towards the bent ring and pinky finger. “Did it hurt?”

Suddenly, his father’s expression became unreadable, some emotion clouded inside his eyes that he couldn’t make out. Sadness? But why would his father be sad? He hadn’t said anything mean.   
Noiz sighed a little and held out his hand, showing off the crooked fingers.   
“When I was your age, I broke them. They never healed right. It… it didn’t hurt though.”

“Oh…” Lukas reached out, wrapping his tiny hand around them again, clasping onto them tight. “Do they hurt now?”

“Not really, no. But… when you hold them like this, it makes them better.”

Lukas’ eyes went wide, mouth wide in a grin. “Really?! Then… then I’ll hold Vati’s hand until it never hurts again! Until they are better!”

His father returned a smile, leaning down to kiss his son’s forehead.   
“Thank you, Lukas,” he said, voice filled with love. “Thank you so much.”

… He couldn’t understand why his father acted the way he did, but he didn’t care. He was happy to have made his father happy, no matter how he went about it.


	12. Out of this World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noiz, Aoba, the children, and Theo visit a museum as an early birthday gift.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for day 6 of NoiAo week-- 'Future'. Found on my writing blog [here](http://seventhimpact.tumblr.com/post/137095680423/noiao-week-day-6-future)!

“Are you sure this is the right place?” Aoba asked, stopping in his tracks to catch sight of where they were. His memory about this part of town was hazy, even after living in the same city for years. “Somehow… this doesn’t seem right. Do you think we did take the wrong station?”

“That’s the only museum in sight, isn’t it?” Noiz turned his head towards him. “Besides, you could just check your map if you think we’re lost.”

Aoba’s expression went blank. “My hands are a little _busy_ , Mister,” he huffed, gesturing with his eyes to the two-and-a-half-year-old girl sitting on his shoulders, messing with his hair. “Why don’t you check yours?”

“Mine are pretty busy, too.” His husband raised his hand—the one interlocked with his son’s— in jest. Their six-year-old son laughed and pulled back down on his father’s arm, oblivious to his parents’ conversation.

“At least you have a free arm.” Aoba nudged Noiz on his side with his hip. “You know this: I move my hands just a little bit and Aiko starts to cry.”

“Yeah, that’s true. Hmm…”

Aoba visibly noticed the change in Noiz’s expression as an idea came to him. His husband tugged on their son’s arm to get his attention.

“Hey… Lukas?” Noiz bent down a little, getting closer to his height. “Do you know if we’re going in the right direction?”

“Mmhm!” Lukas exclaimed, grinning up at both of his parents. He pointed to the large building at the end of the street, the ivory and rusted copper standing like a great giant over the newer, more modern buildings around it.

“That over there’s the Deutsches Museum! It’s big, really reaaaallly biig, Uncle Theo told me all about it—they got spaceship replicas and space models and stuff! And sometimes, like... like right now… they got a buncha rocks from Mars…” He continued to go on a ramble, as their son usually did when the conversation drifted to something that caught his interest.

Getting impatient by this standing around, Lukas pulled on his father’s hand, forcing him forward.

“Come _on!_ We’re gonna be late!”

“Alright, alright,” Noiz chuckled, letting himself be dragged along. “We’re going.”

Aoba sighed, relief unknotting the nervous tug in his stomach. His tendency to worry got the better of him, made worse by the hectic, loud subway stations they had to solve like an ancient ruin. The stress almost made him forget why they trekked through so many streets and so many stations to get here-- they were doing this for their children.

Theo had humbly invited their entire family to explore one of Germany’s largest and most prestigious museums—an early birthday gift for Lukas, he added. Ever since then, Lukas kept chattering constantly about when they were going, what they were going to do after, what he wanted to see most.

Aoba was both nervous and excited; he had visited here before, but it was years ago, when he first moved across the globe to Germany. He’d forgotten most of what the museum had to offer and only remembered the specifics, what little odds and ends that intrigued Noiz. He was excited to relive those once again, this time with his family at his side… including Theo.

They were retracing their steps from their past, making them anew in the future they had made for themselves. The sentiment alone made his heart stutter.

He bounced his daughter with his shoulders, the little girl laughing in delight while clutching onto him tighter.   
“Hey! Wait up, you two!” he shouted, walking in fast strides to catch up with his husband and son.

Theo was waiting at the front of the museum, standing at the foot of a bronze statue. His eyes searched along the street and occasionally glancing down at his Coil, waiting for some sort of sign of their arrival. When he spotted the familiar shades of blue and blond in the crowd of people he visibly perked up, waving his hands to get their attention. Once their eyes spotted him, the family of four rushed over— the children leading the way more than their parents did.

“Sorry we’re late,” Aoba bemoaned, out of breath. “The stations were late and I was sure we went the wrong way.”

“It’s alright!” Theo grinned. “I could have called for a car to get you, but I know you prefer walking around the city.”

“More like Aiko doesn’t like being in the car,” Noiz added. He turned towards his daughter, gently pinching her cheek. “Don’t like cars, do you?”

Aiko shook her head. “Scary.”   
She squirmed in her father’s arms, beginning to whine with the telltale signs of wanting to stand on her own. Noiz lifted her off Aoba’s shoulders, setting her down by her brother’s side—

Who had been too preoccupied marveling at the museum’s architecture that he barely paid attention to the fact that Theo was in front of them. Not until he noticed his sister at his side, smiling up at their Uncle as he talked with their parents.

“Ooh! Uncle Theo!” he gasped, extending his little arms out for a hug. Theo paused mid-sentence, turning towards the two children at his feet.

“Ah, you two have grown so much!” he said, bending down to encompass both Lukas and Aiko in a warm hug.

Noiz snorted, tucking a hand into his husband’s back pocket. Aoba nearly smacked his hand away when he gave the flesh a firm squeeze.

“You just saw them two weeks ago,” Noiz said cooly.

Theo laughed. “I know, it’s just feels like every time I see them, I see the different parts of both of you showing up in them. Aiko really looks like you did as a baby… ah, that reminds me. Aoba-san, have you ever seen the pictures of my brother as a child? If not, could bring them nex—”

“Alright, Theo,” Noiz sighed, cutting him off.  “We should get going, shouldn’t we?”

Aoba started to notice red creeping its way down from the tips of his ears, turning his cheeks soft pink. He smirked; he didn’t get the chance to embarrass Noiz on a daily basis, but he’d be a fool to miss an opportunity when it opened itself up to him.

Aoba clasped his hands in front of him, the lilt of his voice higher, snarkier.   
“Ah yes, please do! I would love to see pictures of _Wim-kun_ as a baby! The kids would enjoy it, too.” He ruffled up his son’s hair, chuckling. “Wouldn’t you?”

“Vati as a… baby?” Lukas pulled out of their hug, eyes going wide. “Ooh! I wanna see what Vati looked like! And Papa!”

“I wanna see, too!” Aiko spoke up, using her limited vocabulary to the test. She turned towards her parents, grinning wide.

Aoba turned his gaze towards his husband—he was visibly red now, lips downturned in an embarrassed frown. _Serves you right for the public groping_ , he thought to himself. Triumphant pride swelled in his chest, at getting the upper hand on his husband for once.

Yet despite the speck of joy, he felt the swelling urge to kiss the embarrassed flush of his cheeks. Noiz looked adorable when he was embarrassed, like he was that brash kid again rather than the man he had created a life with, but it always made Aoba feel a little guilty for playing with him. _Maybe later._ _When they were somewhere quieter. And darker._

“Come on,” he said, pulling Noiz’s hand out of his pocket to interweave their fingers. “Let’s get going!”

Lukas slipped in between the two of them, urging both his fathers to take his hand. Which they did eagerly. Aiko wished to rest on top of Theo’s shoulders, instead. Noiz asked Lukas if he wanted to do the same, so he could see the exhibits better. He refused kindly, saying he wanted to see them for himself instead.

And the museum did not disappoint. From the moment they walked through the doors it unveiled a spectacle of things to stop and admire—from old large and bulky machines, kept in pristine condition to show how they worked ages ago, to the height of modern technology, showing the complicated machinery that made Coil interfaces run smoothly, even what scientists planned for the future, geared as pushing humanity further than the confines of relativity and space-time.  

For some reason, Aoba felt a chill run down his spine as they passed by a selection centered around genetic manipulation, attempts made to create the perfect being.

While they could have easily spent the rest of the day inside this museum, given its size and the amount of stuff there was to admire, their main attraction was elsewhere: the astronomy exhibition.

Space was Lukas’ new key interest. After a day spent at the local library, Lukas had become a self-proclaimed expert on the solar system and beyond. He rambled about it constantly, during baths, during dinner, as Aoba dropped him off at school. He never grew tired of hearing about how black holes distort time or what causes nebulas to grow into their spiral shape—all of this was new information to him and to his younger sister. Much like her brother, Aiko loved learning, she relished in bedtime stories and block puzzles meant to develop her growing mind.

Aoba was glad his children were so intelligent— but he’d be lying if he wasn’t worried they’d be twice as fluent in German as him before they became teenagers.

But their intelligence was almost astounding. Lukas had a fact of figure for almost every diagram or figure. Despite that, he gaped in awe at everything too, staring at each artifact from space or from ancient astronomers with more enthusiasm than the last. He marveled at a humongous telescope that required an entire room just to hold it-- even more astonished that it was still fully functional. Aoba was amazed by everything, too, even if it all felt distant and new to him; Noiz was fascinated by holograms of distant asteroids, slowly drfiting across the surface of the room.

Theo designated himself as the pseudo-chaperone, insisting on showing the children everything and taking photos of the entire family in front of hyper-realistic photographs of the surface of the moon, Mars, and the outer corners of the asteroid belt.   
Once they had looked at every possible nook and cranny of the astronomy wing, it felt no time had passed at all; a black hole sucked away hours in a mere matter of seconds. And there was more to see in the other parts of the museum they hadn’t even discovered yet. Aoba was almost worried about him or Aiko throwing a tantrum, but they behaved surprisingly well. They could come see it all again next time, Lukas said.

His son’s maturity despite his age always surprised him— _how did he ever get so lucky_?

Aoba wasn’t aware of this last time they visited, or he simply hadn’t been paying attention. A section of the museum had been sectioned off for children, with an assortment of various experiments to let kids test the law of physics and whatnot. Of course, the attraction caught both Lukas’ and Aiko’s eye right as they made the rounds over what looked interesting.

Only parents were allowed to accompany their kids inside, but Theo insisted; he would wait patiently outside in the hall. He didn’t mind.

Surprisingly, they were the only ones there; the tiny space was all theirs to do with as they pleased. Aoba had noticed that the museum appeared less busy today than a usual museum should be… he wondered if Theo (or Noiz) had any part to do with that.

Lukas and Aiko bounded towards a simple Rube Goldberg machine first, working as a team to carry a ping pong ball across the metal contraption. Noiz helped, too.

Meanwhile Aoba admired the other machines and doohickeys specially designed for young potential scientists, just like his son or his daughter. A banner was painted on the side of the wall, in bright vivid colors that bounced across the white-and-black room. It read:

“The final frontier is the future, and we are the pioneers!”

He had to laugh—but as silly as the sentiment to that statement was, it got him to thinking. Over a decade ago, he wouldn’t have thought he would end up here. They shaped this future together, working in tandem to give their beloved the happiest life they could.

And here he was, with a husband and two children. Happier than he could ever be.

Both he and Noiz walked through that frontier, together. Where they were now, where they would be in the future, was all dependent upon them. And for that, everything, no matter how small, had some merit worth celebrating. Every day was a precious memory, one he would treasure with all his might.

Suddenly Aoba was floored with a heap of emotions, but no way to express them properly. He sighed and squeezed Noiz’s shoulder. “Hey.”

Stopping what he was looking at, Noiz turned around, brows knit together in concern. “Hm?”

He traced his hand over the shape of Noiz’s fingers, clasping onto them tight. The pad of his thumb traced the cool metal of his wedding band, the misshapen curve of his pinky and ring finger. Lifting his hand up to his lips, he kissed the scars and the band both.

He loved all of Noiz—the lost and abandoned child before he met him, and the dignified man he’d grown to become. Aoba wanted to express all of that, all of what he couldn’t put into words.

“What was that for?” Noiz asked, flashing a romantic smile.

“Nothing.” Aoba shrugged, hearing the saccharine in his voice. “Just felt like it.”

Noiz wasn’t buying any of that. That smile morphed into a smirk as he leaned in closer.

“Just because you felt like it? I don’t believe that. There must be something else.”

“Hm…” Aoba scrunched his lips together while in thought. “I guess you just look handsome when you’re playing with the kids like that.”

“ _Oh_? Shouldn’t you be kissing me all the time then?”

Aoba snorted, batting him playfully on the chest. “Be quiet. There are children around.”

Yeah, he sure was lucky. That thought rolled around in his head while stealing a kiss from his husband. Their future was everything he could have asked for and more.

He kissed Noiz again once more for safe measure, etching a thank-you note for the years spent in bliss on his lips.


	13. Love in Bloom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The family goes to a rose garden for Aoba's birthday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for Aoba's birthday-- just a short tiny thing but it turned out super cute!! Posted on tumblr [here](http://seventhimpact.tumblr.com/post/143203208543/title-love-and-roses-rating-general-word) :')

Noiz stopped in the middle of the rose garden and let out a small sigh. His eyes searched through the rows and rows of roses, looking for a small, blonde head of hair.   
How could a little girl have gotten lost so quickly? He’d taken his eye off of her for just a second, and poof, their daughter was gone, the child too preoccupied in following whatever caught her eye to care about constantly kicking her fathers’ overprotective gears into hyper-drive.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of blue dart past, followed by the soft pitter-patter of approaching footsteps. Noiz stepped to the side before Aiko, his daughter, ran face-first into his legs.

“What are you doing?” he reprimanded, bending down to get face level with Aiko. “Running off like that worries me and your Papa, you know.”

“I’m sorry…” Aiko mumbled, her eyes downcast, playing with the hem of her flowery dress to avoid meeting her father’s eye. “I… I saw a butterfly, and… I wanted to catch it…”

“A butterfly?” Noiz glanced around the gazebo and blinked. “Ah, that one?”

He pointed at a butterfly— large and azure blue— idly flapping its wings as it rested on a nearby wooden bench. Aiko’s eyes went wide and she nodded frantically, excitement overpowering her guilt with the flip of a switch.

“I wanted to give it to Papa! For his birthday!” she said, grinning. “It reminded me of Papa. Do you think he’d like it?”

“Yeah, you’re right. It does look like Papa, doesn’t it? But I don’t think Papa would want you to hurt such a pretty thing just for him to have it.” Noiz smiled softly and fished out his Coil. “Why don’t we take a picture instead?”

“Yeah, yeah, a picture!” Aiko bounced up and down gleefully and tugged on her father’s arm. “I wanna be in it too please, please!”

He laughed. “Just be sure not to scare it off.”

With one or two or several different pictures taken, Noiz and Aiko wandered hand-in-tiny-hand through the gardens. They admired the colors and the different shapes of roses on their way back to where Aoba and Lukas were supposed to be— a small set of benches near the garden’s lake, overlooking the entire park.

Noiz heard Aoba’s voice before anything else— a timid, nervous laugh, followed by, “A-Are you sure you should be doing this?”

Then another laugh, his son’s joyful laughter. “It’s fine, it’s fine! Just stay still, Papa, I’m almost done…”

Curiously, Noiz turned the corner, finding Lukas perched on one of the garden benches, plucking small budding roses from the large bush behind them. A whole pile of them sat around his feet, and even more were littered through Aoba’s hair, all tucked in different places without rhyme or reason, his hair blue and splotches of different shades of pink all over. His eyes were clenched closed, mouth drawn in a small frown, trying _so hard_ not to move and accidentally ruin his son’s masterpiece.

And Noiz couldn’t help but laugh at the sight.

Lukas stopped in the midst of tucking another rose behind Aoba’s ear; Aoba’s eyes flew open and his cheeks went as pink as the flowers in his hair.

“N-Noiz!” he stammered, the slightest movement making tiny flowers fall out of his hair. Out of his own embarrassment, he mustered a bright grin and a laugh. “Heh, how do I look?”

Noiz threw a smile back. He stepped in closer and lifted a fallen blossom from his shoulder, setting is precariously on the top of his head. “Like a prince.”

Ignoring the blush growing on his husband’s cheeks, he smirked and leaned over and ruffled up his son’s hair. “You did a good job, Lukas.”

“Thank you, Vati! I made Papa look good for his birthday!” Lukas giggled. He hopped off the bench, sending an array of rose petals flying with him. He grabbed his sister’s hand and pointed at a couple of birds grazing nearby, the two of them laughing and giggling as they chased after them.

“Oi, you two! Don’t run off again!” Aoba shouted, his voice dying out before it reached their children. He sighed in exhaustion and more flowers fell out of his hair. “Those two…”

“I’ll go get them,” said Noiz, kneeling over to kiss Aoba on the lips. On any other day, he would have made a point to comment how cute the pink in Aoba’s cheeks was, and how it looked even better with the added roses in his hair.

But today was his birthday. And brief kisses did more than enough to show Aoba how much he loved him.

He broke out of their chaste kiss to plant another one on the side of his lips, and another on the tip of his nose.

“Happy birthday, Aoba.”

Aoba laughed and kissed him back, showering Noiz in a cascade of flowers.

“Thank you, Noiz.”

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know how obvious it is but I love writing NoiAo as parents a lot... but I love writing them as parents _a lot_ :'3


End file.
